After days of uncertainty and a half announcement, Twitter updated its terms of use and confirmed that it will not allow third-party clients. The company quietly changed the Adeveloper sane, a contract that states what can and cannot be done with the API. The document now includes a clause that prohibits the creation of products similar to the official application.
The update is found in subsection A of Reverse engineering and other restrictionswhich belongs to the section Restrictions on Use of Licensed Materials. It establishes that it is not allowed use or access the licensed materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar product or service to the Twitter Applications.
The company confirmed yesterday that the blocking of third-party clients was due to enforcing their long-standing API rules. Indeed, the terms have been around for years, however, Tweetbot, Twitterrific and other applications were allowed. The version in force at the time of publication of the tweet did not contain the new clause, as evidenced a copy stored in Wayback Machine.
Twitterrific withdraws its applications and charges against Twitter
The restriction comes into effect as of today, so all clients will stop operating. At the time of writing this note, only Twitterrific has announced the end of its service. A post on Iconfactory’s blog communicates that the applications for iOS and macOS have been removed from the App Store. The company also charge against Twitter for the unfortunate way things happened.
We’re sorry to say that the app’s sudden and undignified disappearance is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter, a Twitter we no longer recognize as trustworthy or want to work with anymore.
twitterrific
The company warns that the loss of revenue from Twitterrific will seriously hurt business, and that the thousands of refunds will be devastating for a company of its caliber. Craig Hockenberry, Director of Iconfactory, went straight for the jugular of “Space Karen” (Elon Musk).
What bothers me about the last day of Twitterrific is that it wasn’t dignified. There was no advance notice to its creators, clients received a strange error, and no one explained what was going on. We didn’t get a chance to thank the customers who have been with us for over a decade. Instead, it’s just another scene on his ongoing shit show.
Craig Hockenberry
Tweetbot will also say goodbye
![Twitter will block Tweetbot and more third-party clients forever Best apps of the week](https://i0.wp.com/imgs.hipertextual.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/tweetbot4.jpg?resize=780%2C520&quality=60&strip=all&ssl=1)
Although Tweetbot remains in the App Store, users have begun to leave positive reviews thanking them for all this time. Tapbots’ Paul Haddad apologized on a mastodon post. “What is now called Twitter does not bring me joy,” she mentioned.
Finally, for some clarity, we apparently broke the old rule of “using or accessing the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar product or service to the Twitter Applications.” I guess I didn’t realize that “be long actually ‘old'” means a couple of hours ago, once again, I’m so sorry.
Paul Haddad. tapbots
The upgrade to developer agreements marks the end of an era. Prior to the launch of the official app, third-party clients were the best option to enjoy Twitter on mobile devices. Although the company bought Atebits – creators of Tweetie -, Tweetbots and other apps maintained the advantage for many years.
The arrival of Elon Musk means the end of all the concessions that the social network granted. The new CEO is desperately looking to make a profit before he loses all his advertisers. The only way to achieve this is to force all its users to use the official Twitter client.