Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Will Break Third-Party Clients in June (apps-of-a-feather.com)
Come this June, Twitter says it will disable "streaming services", a feature third-party Twitter clients such as Talon, Tweetbot, Twitterrific use to stream the timeline and send push notifications. A replacement for streaming service, the Account Activity API, isn't being made available to third-party developers. In a letter, developers wrote: The new Account Activity API is currently in beta testing, but third-party developers have not been given access and time is running out. 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.
We are incredibly eager to update our apps. However, despite many requests for clarification and guidance, Twitter has not provided a way for us to recreate the lost functionality. We've been waiting for more than a year. This change affects people who use third-party Twitter apps. All software platforms are affected, but it's worse on iOS and Android where users rely on push notifications to know when something happens on Twitter.
We are incredibly eager to update our apps. However, despite many requests for clarification and guidance, Twitter has not provided a way for us to recreate the lost functionality. We've been waiting for more than a year. This change affects people who use third-party Twitter apps. All software platforms are affected, but it's worse on iOS and Android where users rely on push notifications to know when something happens on Twitter.
Oh no! The world is coming to an end!! However will we deal with this life-shattering, first-world problem?
around someone else's api
there's no way whatever option they give you is cost effective because they want you gone
Now you got it!
We are planning on bringing legal action for lost revenue and breach of implied contract and whatever else our lawyer tells us applies. If we're going out, it's going to be with an almighty bang.
So a few dummies built their entire businesses around relying on the good will of a single completely unrelated business. Big deal. They deserve to go out of business for such a dumb, short-sighted decision.
I don't respond to AC's.
They share diseases.
I found a live webcam feed of sheep.
Have gnu, will travel.
In the midst of a big push for people to leave social media, they are trying harder and hard to push people away.
If I were Twitter I'd have zero API limits, and let anyone make a client that desired it. You could easily work in advertising to that model, say embedded ad messages, or some kind of ad feed that would be mandatory for any Twitter client to support in some way that would be reviewed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Twitter has been the place to find breaking news - especially for sports - for several years, which is the main reason I have stayed on the platform. But Twitter's management doesn't seem to know what to do with the product, and each change makes it less useful.
Take Notifications, for instance. Until a short while ago, Notifications worked exactly how you would expect - they were heads' ups regarding new direct messages, announcements about your account, etc. But at some recent point Twitter decided this was apparently an "underused opportunity" or some such nonsense, and started piling garbage into there. Now, whenever I get a notification alert, it's invariably something stupid like "so-and-so retweeted a tweet from such-and-such". I won't be surprised if, in the coming months, we start seeing "sponsored" notifications - e.g. advertisements. Long story short... I no longer even look at the Notifications panel, and have a permanent (and ever-increasing) tag indicating the number of unread items there.
Then there are the "Who to Follow" and "While You Were Away" injections into my timeline. You could argue the former might be worthwhile, if there appeared to be any logic behind it... but the suggestions seem to make little sense, and I suspect at least some of them are paid. With the latter - Twitter is all about recency, so why would I really care about a tweet from 12 hours ago? Anything worthwhile would have shown up on the more traditional media outlets at this point, and with much greater detail (and context).
And "Sponsored Tweets" - just call them ads, since that's what they are. I have yet to see one remotely interesting.
Bottom line - I find myself going to Twitter less and less. It still seems like an interesting idea in theory, but they're hell-bent on making it worthless.
#DeleteChrome
How troublesome. Hooking your cart to someone else's horse, and being upset when it doesn't go where you want.
Twitter messages are so small in terms of data payload. Too bad there isn't a open way to deliver really simple messages like these, syndicating them over the internet so to speak, to a wide audience without going through a single for-profit company's servers...
They won't let you see your friends wall? Just automate a browser and scrape the walls contents. I know, I know, twitter not facebook. Point stands, if they let you see it, you can collect it.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I wonder if Twitter's old API could be conceptually mapped to the things a XMPP server (or maybe IRC?) does. You could then add the old API and then tell all the Twitter developers, "Come over here to your new home!"
(And then Oracle could buy Twitter and sue you, since APIs are suddenly property now. Holy crap, how come that story already faded?!)
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Engadget reports that twitter's postponed this...
https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/06/twitter-changes-major-issues-third-party-apps/
Horse's mouth: https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/982346370882461696
Most people who use third-party apps do it not because they hate twitter, but because they love twitter and the apps give them a better experience. If they stick with the apps, this just means they will not get notifications, will not open and engage with the site as often and will likely soon realize how shallow and useless Twitter is for anything other than emergency alerts and complaining.
A month ago, I reviewed the migration guide for applications using the streaming APIs and it was apparent to me then that this was EXACTLY what Twitter intended to do. For those well-meaning folks who ask if one can just "scrape" the UI and reproduce the data, the answer is no. Not only would you be missing key information, but Twitter would kick you off for TOS violations so fast you'd think they actually COULD manage to achieve one of their intended goals (which is, admittedly, not often the case). Say goodbye to Twitter; they are committing suicide.
Another one shoots themselves in the foot and I'm amused, pleased. Evil service that does nothing but harm civilized society making it harder to use it? Awesome.
I think what twitter is saying to developers is, "Please update your account to enable third party hosting!"