Twitter bans third-party clients from using API in new agreement

Twitter has a new developer agreement on Thursday that prohibits developers from using its API to create a “replacement or similar” service or product to Twitter’s own applications. Previously, the platform shut down apps from its API.

In has the renewed developer agreement the company added a new sentence to the restrictions when using Twitter’s Licensed Materials. Those Licensed Materials include access to Twitter’s API. Under that new sentence, developers may not use Licensed Materials to create, or attempt to create, a “substitute or similar service or product” to Twitter’s own products.

That sentence was not so explicit in the developer agreement before last Thursday, according to the Wayback Machine. Several third-party Twitter apps reported last week that they suddenly had problems using Twitter’s API. Tweetbot, Twitterific and Talon, among others, said that they could not or less offer their services.

Earlier this week, Twitter acknowledged that it was a deliberate move to exclude third-party apps from its API. In addition, the platform said to maintain “long-standing API rules”, without further explanation. It is therefore not clear which API rules the company was referring to at the time or why the company suddenly closed access after having allowed this for years.

Presumably, Twitter stopped this access because the company is missing out on ad revenue from these third-party apps. The api may still be used for other purposessuch as better searching for tweets, managing accounts, for advertising purposes and sharing tweets on external sites.