Elon Musk Cuts Off Third Party Twitter Apps From API‽
There is no clear communication to what is going on right now, but @gruber@mastodon.social posted about third party Twitter apps being unceremoniously cut off from Twitter’s API (API means Application Programming Interface for you non-geeks out there).
Last night around 11pm ET, Tweetbot and Twitterrific stopped working, with authentication errors. They’re still down, as are other popular clients. Twitter has said nothing, either publicly or in communications to the affected developers, so your guess is as good as mine whether this is an unintended outage from Twitter’s skeleton crew staff or a strategic decision to pull the plug on third-party clients. Last night I’d have bet — a small amount — that it was an unintentional outage. Today I’d bet the other way, that this is the end. (Daring Fireball)
With Elon Musk declining to pay rent, shutting down critical servers, & even refusing to honor license agreements, Twitter cutting off API access in hindsight should not be a surprise (but to me it is a surprise!).
Creating apps dependent upon the Twitter API was a way many developers provided food on the table. But maybe they could replace some of the lost revenue by looking elsewhere.
Should Twitterverse Developers Embrace The Fediverse‽
It may not replace the money lost due to Elon Musk’s negligence, but maybe Twitterverse developers could create premium iPhone, iPad & Android apps for the Fediverse, as there is a great need for quality apps.
Obvious options include Mastodon, Pixelfed & MissKey (latter has great iPhone & iPad app now), but a few other suggestions include:
- An iPhone, iPad & Android app for Owncast (@owncast@fosstodon.org would appreciate the support!)
- An Android app for WriteFreely (the official Android app is neglected & underpowered). WriteFreely does boast great iPhone & iPad apps though
- An iPhone, iPad & Android app for Peertube
- An iPhone & iPad app for FunkWhale (they already have an official Android app
- An iPhone, iPad & Android app for Bookwyrm (note: it might have to be free due to the software license, but maybe adding a tip feature could help)
- An iPhone, iPad & Android app for Friendica
The Fediverse Party has a lengthy list of numerous Fediverse apps developers could create apps for.
Developers could also create apps for Matrix as the platform now boasts over 80 million users.
Discovered via:
Tweetbot and other clients are experiencing problems logging in to Twitter. We’ve reached out to Twitter for more details, but haven’t heard back.
— Tweetbot by Tapbots (@tweetbot) January 13, 2023
We’re hoping this is just a temporary glitch and will let you know more as soon as we know more.
Here's an update:https://t.co/aLCFoqxIIv
— allthemoney (@realLisaDaly) January 13, 2023
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