‘Twitter deliberately blocked certain third-party apps from API’

Shutting down third-party apps that use Twitter’s API was a deliberate action. This is evident from the company’s internal communications. One of the developers demonstrated this by changing the API keys, after which the app briefly worked again.

Tweetbot notification after Twitter shutdown

Because the app only worked with changed API keys, it can be deduced that the API itself still works, but access to certain apps has been closed. says the developer of Tweetbot. Several of the best-known apps that work with the Twitter API have been offline since Friday.

That the closure is deliberate is evident from internal communications The Information has seen. The site writes that messages appeared on the company’s Slack server on Friday morning US time that it was not a malfunction, but rather the closure of access to the API. According to reports, Twitter is working on a list of ‘approved talking points’ for developers, but so far there has been no such communication.

In addition to Tweetbot reports Twitterific that the app cannot connect to Twitter, just like Android app Talon. Twitter once gave free access to the API, but that came to an end around ten years ago. Twitter makes less or no money from users of third-party clients, partly because some apps do not show advertisements.