Twitter's delays API change that would have killed off third party apps soon

Twitter is making changes to its APIs this year, potentially blocking twitter apps from streaming tweets i.e showing new tweets as they arrive, or delivering push notifications.

This pre-announced change lead to an outcry from third-party developers of famous twitter apps Twitterific and Falcon yesterday, among others.

“With access, we might be able to implement some push notifications, but they would be limited at the standard level to 35 Twitter accounts – our products must deliver notifications to hundreds of thousands of customers. No pricing has been given for Enterprise level service with unlimited accounts – we have no idea if this will be an affordable option for us and our users,” The developer coalition called apps of a feather explain,”Automatic refresh of your timeline just won’t work: there is no web server on your mobile device or desktop computer that Twitter can contact with updates. Since updating your timeline with other methods is rate-limited by Twitter, you will see delays in real-time updates during sporting events and breaking news.”

This will affect third-party Twitter apps on Windows as well, including Aeries, Fenice and other popular Windows apps. It is unclear whether the Windows 10 Mobile app will be affected too, as that has not been updated in aeons.

In response to the outrage, Twitter has promised to revise this and look into it, delaying the June 19 shutdown, but once more, it is unclear what the firm would do.

A delay means nothing. Twitter has never cared about third-party apps after they helped make the platform so successful. https://t.co/qFSjtE8isk

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 6, 2018

As tech journalist Tom Warren points out (on twitter, no less) the firm has been hostile towards third-party developers in the past, implementing token limits that forced developers to limit users of their apps, among other third-party hostile ‘features’.

Twitter has held its blade for now, but developers shouldn’t hold their breath just yet.