Twitter announced via blog post that they are cutting their support from third-party tweeting apps. This change hits programs like Twitterific and Tweetbot hard, as Twitter is limiting access to its APIs that power essential features for these apps like a refreshing timeline.
Twitter has historically taken inspiration from features included in these third-party apps, like the pull-to-refresh gesture, which they have included in their official, native apps. By killing these apps, Twitter is arguably stifling innovation in its service by not allowing outside developers to showcase new ideas and features for the platform. Speaking on this in the blog post, Senior Director of Data Enterprise Solutions at Twitter stated:
“We love that developers build experiences on our APIs to push our service, technology, and the public conversation forward. We deeply respect the time, energy, and passion they’ve put into building amazing things using Twitter.”
Developers of non-native Twitter apps have been universally critical of Twitter’s decision. In addition to removing API access to non-native apps, Twitter has removed the ability to simultaneously tweet and make Facebook posts.
