9 ms·

Context for those not following: Twitter has silently shut down their API for many third party clients without any communication. Companies with apps that have

Context for those not following: Twitter has silently shut down their API for many third party clients without any communication. Companies with apps that have been using the API for 15+ years are left in the dark: https://blog.iconfactory.com/2023/01/state-of-the-twitterverse/ https://blog.iconfactory.com/2023/01/state-of-the-twitterver...

TheHappyOddish 4y ago
Thanks. The foaming at the mouth rabble here following this closely apparently expect everyone to be up to date on the movements of Twitter at all times.
tinyhouse 4y ago
The moment Musk acquired Twitter they should've known this would happen. The guy doesn't care about anyone except himself.
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  To be fair you could argue the same for 3rd parties. Twitter may have grown cos of 3rd party apps but it would die to 3rd party apps too if it can’t make money.
  - Fnoord 4y ago
    Sure, you could argue that, but... Without API we go back to web scraping, Selenium, etc. Now guess which method is more expensive for any company (including Twitter)? Web scraping. Its the entire reason an API started to exist in the first place. Besides, if there is authentication involved, the user is logged in, and API calls can be profiled. So I would say to your statement: "Definitely not." Only on the short term. And those users you lose you might be able to write off as dead weight or leeches but if a couple of big fish will have impact on the power of the network effect. And once that is reduced, the domino effect might take place.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- spatulon 4y ago
  Musk might care if this move drives all the influential power users away. I'm not influential – I almost never tweet and have almost no followers – but I've read Twitter almost every day for the last 15 years. If I can't use Tweetbot, I'm just going to stop using Twitter. The official client and the website are just not usable for me. Sure, they haven't been getting any ad revenue from me using a third-party client, so they won't miss me, but they never even attempted to provide those ads to the third-party clients.
  - ctvo 4y ago
    > If I can't use Tweetbot, I'm just going to stop using Twitter. The official client and the website are just not usable for me. This is the situation for me. I haven't been on the platform since this disruption.
- unity1001 4y ago
  This happened before Musk. Twitter decided to 'pivot' to 'enterprise users' to sell 'influencer data' to them. They suddenly shut down their api and changed their api pages to some b2b sales pitch. You couldnt even open an account without giving them excrutiating detail about the size of your enterprise and how big you were (there were poll questions to pass before signing up). When they noticed that they killed their developer base, they started a mailing campaign saying something like 'We love developers' (cringe). But by that time it was done and gone. Again - this happened before Musk.
HunchedOver 4y ago
How many is "many"? Looks like the only affected apps were those which provided a different means to access Twitter without ads. This feels like a storm in a teacup with the majority of developers on the API being unaffected.
- blacklight 4y ago
  > the only affected apps were those which provided a different means to access Twitter without ads Isn't that the whole purpose of an API to send and retrieve content without ads - or any other presentation-layer addition?
  - Hamuko 4y ago
    It's definitely the purpose of the Twitter API because it does not serve ads when you fetch the timeline.
    - TillE 4y ago
      While that's clearly the right choice for professional social media manager type apps which might pay some monthly fee, it's very strange that in so many years they've never created two tiers of API feeds, with an ad-filled one for normal third party apps.
- rtpg 4y ago
  While I do agree that Twitter was pretty exceptional in allowing these clients to exist, as usual it’s about just doing it silently and not giving any rationale. At least have the courage to admit what you’ve done!
- Hamuko 4y ago
  There are at least 28 known apps that were banned without any reason or explanation. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1O27Co27g2fWRon7gK79R8e4th6Xtort3bm289_2jhjQ/htmlview https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1O27Co27g2fWRon7g...
- alkonaut 4y ago
TeMPOraL 4y ago
Context for those new to the party - this is something that happens again and again. Twitter messing with the API and insta-killing businesses depending on it is a meme at this point. C.f. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8284398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8284398 - my comment from 9 years ago, reminiscing the Twitter API fiasco 10 years ago. Also 8 years ago, as the cycle started anew: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10427530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10427530. EDIT: I still think the quote there perfectly describes the situation, so I'll repost it verbatim yet again. * Sovereign from Mass Effect on using someone else's technology "Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."
- _djo_ 4y ago
  To be fair, for all the issues around Twitter limiting APIs in the past none of it was this bad. Nor were any changes done with zero warning and communication. This is categorically different from what happened before.
rvz 4y ago
> Companies with apps that have been using the API for 15+ years are left in the dark: This is quite predictable of any service really as I already did predict this [0]. Third-party apps have little to no hope against first party ones even if it is better. [1] Companies and projects being dependent on someone else's API is inevitable to be shut off, clamped down or rising costs on plans to keep it alive. An uphill battle which the first party can compete against you and shut you down. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25685294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25685294 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25684953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25684953
- paulcole 4y ago
  What’s the state of third-party clients for GitHub, Reddit, and YouTube?
  - rippercushions 4y ago
    I think it's fair to say Git as an option for accessing GitHub is likely to stick around.
  - pjc50 4y ago
    Baconreader still works for Reddit. Youtube is a lot more adversarial because of all the copyright issues, but there's NewPipe, and yt-dlp as well as all the authorized third party clients like non-Android TVs.
  - yurishimo 4y ago
    Reddit is surprisingly still open w/ their API at this point. Some features have been purposefully left out of the APIs accessible to "old" reddit, but many were not. Apollo is a Reddit client for iOS and the major feature it doesn't have from the official client is "Chat". To be clear, you can still send/receive DMs, but the IM chat is not available. For time sensitive events (/r/place) I believe there was support in the official app, but that makes sense not to expose to 3rd parties. Most other "features" can be recreated by the client independently as long as they have access to your posts/history. All of that said, I would not hold my breath that this will still be true in 10 years. The only reason that the 3rd party clients are still supported is because Reddit is able to make enough revenue from those users to justify the expense. If/when that changes, so will API access. To their credit, it is possible to spend Reddit coins and give awards via the current API, but you need to use an official client to top up your account. This at least provides a path for 3rd party client users to generate revenue for Reddit directly.

TheHappyOddish 4y ago

Thanks. The foaming at the mouth rabble here following this closely apparently expect everyone to be up to date on the movements of Twitter at all times.

tinyhouse 4y ago

The moment Musk acquired Twitter they should've known this would happen. The guy doesn't care about anyone except himself.

philliphaydon 4y ago
To be fair you could argue the same for 3rd parties. Twitter may have grown cos of 3rd party apps but it would die to 3rd party apps too if it can’t make money.
- Fnoord 4y ago
  Sure, you could argue that, but... Without API we go back to web scraping, Selenium, etc. Now guess which method is more expensive for any company (including Twitter)? Web scraping. Its the entire reason an API started to exist in the first place. Besides, if there is authentication involved, the user is logged in, and API calls can be profiled. So I would say to your statement: "Definitely not." Only on the short term. And those users you lose you might be able to write off as dead weight or leeches but if a couple of big fish will have impact on the power of the network effect. And once that is reduced, the domino effect might take place.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
spatulon 4y ago
Musk might care if this move drives all the influential power users away. I'm not influential – I almost never tweet and have almost no followers – but I've read Twitter almost every day for the last 15 years. If I can't use Tweetbot, I'm just going to stop using Twitter. The official client and the website are just not usable for me. Sure, they haven't been getting any ad revenue from me using a third-party client, so they won't miss me, but they never even attempted to provide those ads to the third-party clients.
- ctvo 4y ago
  > If I can't use Tweetbot, I'm just going to stop using Twitter. The official client and the website are just not usable for me. This is the situation for me. I haven't been on the platform since this disruption.
unity1001 4y ago
This happened before Musk. Twitter decided to 'pivot' to 'enterprise users' to sell 'influencer data' to them. They suddenly shut down their api and changed their api pages to some b2b sales pitch. You couldnt even open an account without giving them excrutiating detail about the size of your enterprise and how big you were (there were poll questions to pass before signing up). When they noticed that they killed their developer base, they started a mailing campaign saying something like 'We love developers' (cringe). But by that time it was done and gone. Again - this happened before Musk.

HunchedOver 4y ago

How many is "many"? Looks like the only affected apps were those which provided a different means to access Twitter without ads. This feels like a storm in a teacup with the majority of developers on the API being unaffected.

blacklight 4y ago
> the only affected apps were those which provided a different means to access Twitter without ads Isn't that the whole purpose of an API to send and retrieve content without ads - or any other presentation-layer addition?
- Hamuko 4y ago
  It's definitely the purpose of the Twitter API because it does not serve ads when you fetch the timeline.
  - TillE 4y ago
    While that's clearly the right choice for professional social media manager type apps which might pay some monthly fee, it's very strange that in so many years they've never created two tiers of API feeds, with an ad-filled one for normal third party apps.
rtpg 4y ago
While I do agree that Twitter was pretty exceptional in allowing these clients to exist, as usual it’s about just doing it silently and not giving any rationale. At least have the courage to admit what you’ve done!
Hamuko 4y ago
There are at least 28 known apps that were banned without any reason or explanation. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1O27Co27g2fWRon7gK79R8e4th6Xtort3bm289_2jhjQ/htmlview https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1O27Co27g2fWRon7g...
alkonaut 4y ago

TeMPOraL 4y ago

Context for those new to the party - this is something that happens again and again. Twitter messing with the API and insta-killing businesses depending on it is a meme at this point. C.f. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8284398 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8284398 - my comment from 9 years ago, reminiscing the Twitter API fiasco 10 years ago. Also 8 years ago, as the cycle started anew: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10427530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10427530. EDIT: I still think the quote there perfectly describes the situation, so I'll repost it verbatim yet again. * Sovereign from Mass Effect on using someone else's technology "Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

_djo_ 4y ago
To be fair, for all the issues around Twitter limiting APIs in the past none of it was this bad. Nor were any changes done with zero warning and communication. This is categorically different from what happened before.

rvz 4y ago

> Companies with apps that have been using the API for 15+ years are left in the dark: This is quite predictable of any service really as I already did predict this [0]. Third-party apps have little to no hope against first party ones even if it is better. [1] Companies and projects being dependent on someone else's API is inevitable to be shut off, clamped down or rising costs on plans to keep it alive. An uphill battle which the first party can compete against you and shut you down. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25685294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25685294 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25684953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25684953

paulcole 4y ago
What’s the state of third-party clients for GitHub, Reddit, and YouTube?
- rippercushions 4y ago
  I think it's fair to say Git as an option for accessing GitHub is likely to stick around.
- pjc50 4y ago
  Baconreader still works for Reddit. Youtube is a lot more adversarial because of all the copyright issues, but there's NewPipe, and yt-dlp as well as all the authorized third party clients like non-Android TVs.
- yurishimo 4y ago
  Reddit is surprisingly still open w/ their API at this point. Some features have been purposefully left out of the APIs accessible to "old" reddit, but many were not. Apollo is a Reddit client for iOS and the major feature it doesn't have from the official client is "Chat". To be clear, you can still send/receive DMs, but the IM chat is not available. For time sensitive events (/r/place) I believe there was support in the official app, but that makes sense not to expose to 3rd parties. Most other "features" can be recreated by the client independently as long as they have access to your posts/history. All of that said, I would not hold my breath that this will still be true in 10 years. The only reason that the 3rd party clients are still supported is because Reddit is able to make enough revenue from those users to justify the expense. If/when that changes, so will API access. To their credit, it is possible to spend Reddit coins and give awards via the current API, but you need to use an official client to top up your account. This at least provides a path for 3rd party client users to generate revenue for Reddit directly.