6 ms·

Twitter has blocked 3rd party apps

141 points by nomdep 4y ago

KingLancelot 4y ago
So what happens to other sites login with twitter?
- seanhunter 4y ago
  Generally social sign-in uses oauth apis[1]. These are most likely unaffected as they aren't part of the general twitter api that would be used by 3rd party apps. [1] https://www.sitepoint.com/demystifying-modern-social-apis-social-sign-in/ https://www.sitepoint.com/demystifying-modern-social-apis-so...
  - wut42 4y ago
    Twitter API uses oAuth for authentication. Third-party clients saw their keys revoked, meaning oauth social sign-in ain't going to work either.
- scraplab 4y ago
  I run one that hasn’t been blocked and is working as normal. This definitely looks selective to me.
  - wooger 4y ago
    It’s slapdash, and maybe just based on cutting off the top N most used ones. Fenix is blocked on Android, but not on iOS, explain that!
viraptor 4y ago
That's not the correct title. This is just speculation. It could be an explicit block or it could be a failure that affects API access for features used by 3rd party clients. There's a good chance for either option at this point really...
- sathomasga 4y ago
  Well, it’s been more than 24 hours without a peep from Twitter. Seems like a legitimate bug/failure would have at least been acknowledged by now.
  - viraptor 4y ago
    Twitter was down in NZ and Australia for something like 16h recently with no official communication and no status update. It's the new normal.
    - zarzavat 4y ago
      Twitter has for years had an antagonistic relationship with third party apps, heavily restricting API access. Then Elon comes along and bans mere links to third party social networking profiles (only rescinded because of the outcry). While we can't prove that this is a duck yet, it's certainly a waddling object that is quacking like crazy.
      - lostlogin 4y ago
        > Twitter has for years had an antagonistic relationship with third party apps. Twitter has antagonistic relationships across the board now, both internally and externally.
  - Mindwipe 4y ago
    There's literally no comms people left to communicate it, and it seems like Musk's fellow shareholders have finally sufficently threatened him to get him to shut up.
    - Waterluvian 4y ago
      I was a teenager once and sometimes you just don’t come up with something (you think is) clever to say.
- Hamuko 4y ago
valeg 4y ago
Elon Musk cannot milk Tweetbot users as much, so, goodbye 3rd-party. Predictable.
- kuon 4y ago
  Well, for me it means I'll juste stop to use it. I guess we are a minority.
  - philipov 4y ago
    The great irony for me is that all the conversation about how bad twitter is becoming is still happening on twitter. After all this time, people are still unable or unwilling to switch to something else. That's how strong the platform lock-in has become.
    - amanaplanacanal 4y ago
      Not all. I’m reading it here on HN, for example.
    - jeromegv 4y ago
      There’s lots of those discussions on Mastodon.
    - madeofpalk 4y ago
      I thought I never could switch away from Twitter, until I did. I try to avoid Twitter stuff in my Mastodon timeline, but this has crept in (mostly from the app developers)
- wooger 4y ago
  But the only reason there is no monetisation via ads and other “innovations” in these apps is because Twitter have deliberately degraded the APIs and not kept them current with the official site/app for a decade now. Twitter could also start charging app devs for API licenses, or restrict 3rd party apps to Twitter blue users if they want to change things up.
yokem55 4y ago
Twidere seems broken, but Frittr (read-only) seems fine as do the nitter instances I use.
aliqot 4y ago
I'm more inclined to believe something broke and the person who knows how to fix it is enjoying a mai-tai in the Toldyaso Islands
sylens 4y ago
I think this is going to have a pretty substantial impact on the service. The power users who create a lot of the content on Twitter are very likely to be using 3rd party apps because the official app (and web version) are, in my opinion, completely unusable. Constantly switching the timeline view back to "Top Tweets" in order to surface more promoted posts and 'popular' tweets is annoying on any service, but doubly so on Twitter which is the platform where I expect to be reading the most current discussions.
- barbazoo 4y ago
  This might be a blessing in disguise. It absolutely sucks for the maintainers of the projects affected but hopefully it's another step towards Twitters irrelevance.

141 points by nomdep 4y ago

KingLancelot 4y ago

So what happens to other sites login with twitter?

seanhunter 4y ago
Generally social sign-in uses oauth apis[1]. These are most likely unaffected as they aren't part of the general twitter api that would be used by 3rd party apps. [1] https://www.sitepoint.com/demystifying-modern-social-apis-social-sign-in/ https://www.sitepoint.com/demystifying-modern-social-apis-so...
- wut42 4y ago
  Twitter API uses oAuth for authentication. Third-party clients saw their keys revoked, meaning oauth social sign-in ain't going to work either.
scraplab 4y ago
I run one that hasn’t been blocked and is working as normal. This definitely looks selective to me.
- wooger 4y ago
  It’s slapdash, and maybe just based on cutting off the top N most used ones. Fenix is blocked on Android, but not on iOS, explain that!

viraptor 4y ago

That's not the correct title. This is just speculation. It could be an explicit block or it could be a failure that affects API access for features used by 3rd party clients. There's a good chance for either option at this point really...

sathomasga 4y ago
Well, it’s been more than 24 hours without a peep from Twitter. Seems like a legitimate bug/failure would have at least been acknowledged by now.
- viraptor 4y ago
  Twitter was down in NZ and Australia for something like 16h recently with no official communication and no status update. It's the new normal.
  - zarzavat 4y ago
    Twitter has for years had an antagonistic relationship with third party apps, heavily restricting API access. Then Elon comes along and bans mere links to third party social networking profiles (only rescinded because of the outcry). While we can't prove that this is a duck yet, it's certainly a waddling object that is quacking like crazy.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      > Twitter has for years had an antagonistic relationship with third party apps. Twitter has antagonistic relationships across the board now, both internally and externally.
- Mindwipe 4y ago
  There's literally no comms people left to communicate it, and it seems like Musk's fellow shareholders have finally sufficently threatened him to get him to shut up.
  - Waterluvian 4y ago
    I was a teenager once and sometimes you just don’t come up with something (you think is) clever to say.
Hamuko 4y ago

valeg 4y ago

Elon Musk cannot milk Tweetbot users as much, so, goodbye 3rd-party. Predictable.

kuon 4y ago
Well, for me it means I'll juste stop to use it. I guess we are a minority.
- philipov 4y ago
  The great irony for me is that all the conversation about how bad twitter is becoming is still happening on twitter. After all this time, people are still unable or unwilling to switch to something else. That's how strong the platform lock-in has become.
  - amanaplanacanal 4y ago
    Not all. I’m reading it here on HN, for example.
  - jeromegv 4y ago
    There’s lots of those discussions on Mastodon.
  - madeofpalk 4y ago
    I thought I never could switch away from Twitter, until I did. I try to avoid Twitter stuff in my Mastodon timeline, but this has crept in (mostly from the app developers)
wooger 4y ago
But the only reason there is no monetisation via ads and other “innovations” in these apps is because Twitter have deliberately degraded the APIs and not kept them current with the official site/app for a decade now. Twitter could also start charging app devs for API licenses, or restrict 3rd party apps to Twitter blue users if they want to change things up.

yokem55 4y ago

Twidere seems broken, but Frittr (read-only) seems fine as do the nitter instances I use.

aliqot 4y ago

I'm more inclined to believe something broke and the person who knows how to fix it is enjoying a mai-tai in the Toldyaso Islands

sylens 4y ago

I think this is going to have a pretty substantial impact on the service. The power users who create a lot of the content on Twitter are very likely to be using 3rd party apps because the official app (and web version) are, in my opinion, completely unusable. Constantly switching the timeline view back to "Top Tweets" in order to surface more promoted posts and 'popular' tweets is annoying on any service, but doubly so on Twitter which is the platform where I expect to be reading the most current discussions.

barbazoo 4y ago
This might be a blessing in disguise. It absolutely sucks for the maintainers of the projects affected but hopefully it's another step towards Twitters irrelevance.