Twitter’s third-party apps are strangely out of order
Fenix, Twitterrific, Tweetbot, YoruFukurou, and other third-party Twitter apps do not respond for several hours. Suspects an API access problem. However, the reasons for this failure are not clear.
” I’m at PLS this morning. My Third-Party Twitter App Without Ads and Algorithms Doesn’t Work “. This is the message shared by a colleague on Friday, January 13, when he tried to connect to his favorite software this morning. And it is far from the only such testimony. On Twitter, other internet users share it same concern.
A simple API failure?
It’s a problem accessing the Twitter API. It is a programming interface (API stands for Application Programming Interface) that allows you to connect to social network servers and access data. This allows, for example, the availability of third-party solutions as an alternative to the official application.
Neither The official account dedicated to Twitter support neither one that specializes precisely in community site APIs netizens did not write anything about the incident. On the other hand, profiles of several third-party apps, such as Twitterrific and Fenix, have spoken out to raise concerns about API access.
” Fenix for Android currently has problems communicating with Twitter, as do many other third-party clients », he wrote on the morning of January 13, the corresponding account. ” We are aware that Twitterrific is having issues connecting to Twitter. We don’t know the reason yet, but we’re trying to find out. », reacted his rival.
” Tweetbot and other clients are having trouble connecting to Twitter. We reached out to Twitter for more information, but have not heard back. We hope this is a temporary issue and we will let you know as soon as we have more information. », is also shown Tweetbot.
The circumstances of the outage are unclear, and two hypotheses are at odds: a simple temporary hiatus, which could have been caused in part by the precise cuts Elon Musk demanded in Twitter’s workforce to reduce the company’s payroll — which could have caused the absence of work. Staff to focus on API.
Another possibility, which is darker for the future of third-party clients: Twitter stops the API or drastically tightens its access conditions, because these alternative tools are different from monetization, monitoring statistics, algorithmic analysis of data and, in general, multiple distribution channels. , Elon Musk’s vision.
This possibility seems more plausible since Tweetdeck, an alternative to Twitter, does not suffer from any obvious problems. However, there’s a big difference: Tweetdeck is owned by Twitter. This inconsistency between third-party programs and official tools raises suspicions about a deliberate plan, such as the ban on posting links to Mastodon.
The community site seems desperate for monetization prospects. On January 11, “The Information” reported that Twitter’s efforts to attract advertisers have so far not yielded results. One of the giants of the sector has reduced its spending on the platform by 40-50% after the site was taken over by Elon Musk.
The personality of Elon Musk is probably not entirely related to the recent choices of advertisers to reduce the sails or completely turn away from Twitter – the American entrepreneur has multiplied – and in many topics – provocations and sensational walks, often while changing legs. It gave the impression of constant instability on Twitter.
By this criterion, the API lock can be seen as a somewhat desperate attempt to limit the hack, forcing Internet users to return to the official application, to see the ads that seem to have increased recently. . should always be of lower quality on topics not related to the centers of interest.
