Twitter’s API, the interface responsible for enabling programmatic access to the social service, seemingly faltered last night, disallowing 3rd party app access.
The social company has been unable to keep itself out of the news since the Elon Musk takeover back in late October 2022, and this time, Twitter’s API has flatlined. This has led to the crash of third-party apps such as Tweetbot and Talon, and as of the posting of this article, the issue has yet to be resolved. Users who utilize third-party apps have ironically taken to the original social media app to complain.
The constant that keeps coming up from users’ outrage is the notion that Twitter, run by Elon Musk, killed the third-party apps from working so users would have to use the base app, similar to how some journalists found themselves exiled off the site in December 2022. Tweetbot made a post stating, “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,” regarding the ongoing issue and the lack of transparency related to whether this is a permanent block or a temporary one.
Third-party apps are notorious for allowing users to utilize extra features not currently available on the original app, including fewer algorithmic suggestions and a different overall design for user customization. Tweetbot’s Paul Haddad told TechCrunch the issue started around 10:30 p.m. EST, and also made his own statement on mastodon saying, “I’m hoping whatever is going on at Twitter is just some automated spam protection bot that is incorrectly suspending proper apps.”
Whatever the case may be, no spokesperson or Elon Musk himself has yet even to address these problems or acknowledge that they exist, so users will have just to hold tight until that happens.
