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Twitter’s tumultuous tenure under Elon Musk’s leadership has brought depressing changes to many avid Twitter users. The third-party Twitter app developer he relied on to make the app work is no longer supported.
As a longtime user, I have been a fan of these apps and the official Twitter app. I found better experiences and tools in iPhone apps like Twitterific and Tweetbot. I liked that they didn’t try to drown me in advertising, TRUE What I liked was how they controlled my Twitter experience. I was able to maintain my place in the timeline and pick up where I left off. I was able to keep a chronological timeline at all times. Based on connectivity, we were able to determine how images and videos were displayed and loaded. I didn’t have to deal with the recommendations. Content that the Twitter algorithm thought I liked.
In short, these apps let me enjoy Twitter like I used to. Thanks to that, we were able to support small software developers who created great products without being part of a big corporate behemoth.
Thanks to these apps, I was able to enjoy Twitter the way I used to, not what Twitter wanted me to do.
The lack of ads in the app wasn’t the biggest draw for me. In fact, it was puzzling that Twitter did not add advertising to the API provided to developers. Single-minded Twitter users who are clearly willing to spend some money to have a good experience. Sure, Twitter eventually started offering a “blue” monthly subscription plan, but that only cut the ads you see in half.
In many cases, these apps were the origin of interesting features created by third-party app developers. , which are all APIs (application programming interfaces, apps for connecting to services). Some of these innovators were acquired by his Twitter, including Tweetie creator his Atebits, TweetDeck, and TwitPic.
A cottage industry of independent developers sprung up around this API, offering unique ideas on Twitter to anyone who wanted to try them out, perhaps for a few bucks. Last week, Twitter abruptly removed the APIs used by these developers, bringing to the knee many small businesses that relied on their access to make a living. Years ago there was a back and forth between Twitter and this developer community, but until recently they lived in harmony. Twitter knew that engagement made up for the little revenue it lost to developers using these apps. Those power users drove.
And here comes Elon. Billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in his turbulent 2022 has resulted in one of the most difficult times in Twitter’s history. Mass turnover hit Twitter employees, most opting for a retirement package when Musk offered those who remained the option to ‘hardcore or quit’. Just as they were trying to find ways to make more money, Twitter employees hollowed out.
That Twitter didn’t burn out after receiving a ton of resignations is a testament to the engineer’s work before and during Elon Musk’s turmoil.
Despite the predictions of certain tech pundits, Twitter didn’t burn out anytime soon. This is a testament to his Twitter engineer work before and during this mess. They’ve built an intricate system with checks and balances to ensure resilience, even with the minimal crew left to maintain code and servers. But with Musk pushing his Twitter developers to make changes to the platform in search of revenue optimization, it was an unforeseen event that something would eventually break.
Recently, an API used by third-party apps has become unstable. It cycled on and off and clearly had trouble getting the data I wanted. and that is abruptly and completely suspended under the Twitter Developer Agreement, which prohibits developers from “using or accessing the Licensed Material to create or attempt to create services or products that substitute for or are similar to Twitter.” followed by a hastily added line to the . application”.
what happened? Much like what happens in businesses that want to do a lot but don’t have enough people to do it all. Worth it. Twitter has long tolerated third-party developers, but has never been extremely supportive of them. Even when new features were incorporated into the API, they often took a long time to be incorporated into the API. For example, Twitter app developers didn’t have access to voting functionality.
The APIs developers used to create their own apps weren’t the same tools Twitter used to power their own apps. This is the sort of thing Twitter would have done if it had been truly committed to its product. Big changes were happening behind the scenes at Twitter, and at some point those changes were going to intersect with the API. When that happened, developers were faced with the choice of making these changes with the API in mind or updating the API to accommodate the changes if they wanted to keep the API working. Both complicate the whole process, complexity is time and time is money. Currently, Twitter does not have any of them.
So the choice was made in the face of choices that could seriously complicate the ability to deliver along the timelines demanded by the notoriously fickle and capricious Musk. It’s easier and cheaper to just stop the API than trying to fix it to keep it going. Twitter costs nothing and can instead continue to invest in new features to draw affected users to his official Twitter app.
Faced with two options that complicate the task, Twitter chose to give up instead.
So the small developer shops that were building apps on top of that API are in a terrible position. Iconfactory, the company behind longtime iOS client Twitterific, has removed the app and my favorite, his TweetBot, is migrating the Twitter experience to an app for Mastodon. Like Twitter struggling under Musk ownership.
Of course, you could argue that it would be irresponsible for these third-party developers to build their business on the beneficiaries of another business that offers their product for free. I had no obligation to do so. But relationships and support for third-party developers have always been part of Twitter’s DNA, like it or not. A symbiotic relationship is good for both sides, and it’s a shame Twitter no longer views it as such. It wasn’t too much. It’s also emblematic of the way Mr. Musk does things.
All of this raises the question of whether Twitter restricts access for other API users. Will users of the Academic Research API be able to troll Twitter for signs of rising extremism? Will third-party moderation tools like Buffer and Hootsuite continue to work? Direct to TweetDeck tool?
Only time will tell what Twitter will look like in the near future, but I promise this won’t be the first difficult decision/dick move Twitter will make in the coming months.
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