Tweetbot, Twitteriffi and other apps are in trouble due to changes in the platform. The apps are still completely broken due to issues with the Twitter API. Despite growing complaints from Twitter users and developers, Elon Musk has remained silent. This is leading some people to speculate that this change is intentional and that Twitter is shutting down third-party clients entirely.
Twitter API change causes issues for Tweetbot and other clients
As we reported last night, the Official Twitter API for developers is almost completely out of line. This means that popular third-party Twitter apps like Twitteriffic and Tweetbot are completely broken. When you open Tweetbot, for example, you see an error message explaining that there was a “problem authenticating with Twitter.”
The developers have also taken to alternative social platforms like Mastodon to complain about the ongoing issues. “Did Twitter just kill third-party customers? I can’t log in with Twitterific right now,” Twitterrific’s Sean Heber wrote, according to a Tech Crunch report. Tweetbot’s Paul Haddad wrote “I hope what’s happening on Twitter is just a spam protection bot incorrectly suspending the right apps.”
Tweetbot and other clients are experiencing problems logging in to Twitter. We’ve reached out to Twitter for more details, but haven’t heard back.
We’re hoping this is just a temporary glitch and will let you know more as soon as we know more.
— Tweetbot by Tapbots (@tweetbot) January 13, 2023
We’re aware that Twitterrific is having problems communicating with Twitter. We don’t yet know what the root cause is, but we’re trying to find out. Please stay tuned and apologies.
— Twitterrific (@Twitterrific) January 13, 2023
Personally, I have also been able to confirm that Tweetbot on macOS was still down this morning. I had to switch to the official Twitter app for macOS in order to access my account.
Twitter hasn’t issued any kind of statement on the matter, but it’s already known Twitter reported that the company continues to “invest in the developer platform, especially our Twitter API,” in a post last month. “Thank you for joining us in this transition and we can’t wait to continue building together,” the account added.
So it’s possible that updates or changes to the site’s API have caused an unintentional outage. And it’s also possible that the change is some sort of intentional choice by boss Elon Musk, whose reign has been dominated by confusing and spontaneous changes to the little blue bird platform.
All the changes that the new owner of Twitter has made are too numerous to list, but some examples include verification changes and blue marks, the removal of the ban on political advertising among many others.
