That’s the essence of what developers are facing with Twitter’s new more restrictive guidelines that took effect Wednesday. According to Twitter Platform Director Ryan Sarver, developers have six months to comply with the terms of Twitter’s new application programming interface (API) or face getting cut off from the Twitter data feed. In general, Twitter is trying to weed out or limit those services that duplicate (some would argue improve upon) features the micro-blogging service already offers, in favor of those that complement Twitter’s core service and drive traffic to it.
If you’re Twitter, that seems like a reasonable approach toward building a real business. If you are an app developer facing slaughter, not so much. Here are six popular applications that have some soul-searching (and plenty of coding) to do before March if they want to avoid seeing that cute, loveable Twitter birdie transform into a bird of prey.
Twitterific, Echofon, Tweetdeck
In Twitter’s new API, version 1.1, third-party Twitter clients such as Twitterrific, Ecofon, and Tweetdeck aren’t safe: All display a stream of tweets in some fashion, just like Twitter’s own offerings. That’s a big no-no. Director of Consumer Products Michael Sippey wrote in a blog post that Twitter “gave developers guidance that they should not build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.”
In Twitter’s new API, version 1.1, third-party Twitter clients such as Twitterrific, Ecofon, and Tweetdeck aren’t safe: All display a stream of tweets in some fashion, just like Twitter’s own offerings. That’s a big no-no. Director of Consumer Products Michael Sippey wrote in a blog post that Twitter “gave developers guidance that they should not build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.”
Twitter isn’t outlawing third-party apps, but it’s making sure their design mimics the Twitter homepage. Twitter has transformed its “Display Recommendations” into “Display Requirements.” This means anywhere you can see a tweet, whether on Twitter.com or a mobile app, it must include specific design elements including a time stamp, the user’s profile picture, and retweet and reply icons.
Tweetbot
Every time someone on a third-party app signs into Twitter, they use an individual user token. Starting last month, third-party Twitter clients must get explicit permission from Twitter to use more than 100,000 tokens or have more than 100,000 individual Twitter account holders using the app. Tweetbot tried to work around this restriction, but according to a company blog post, it couldn’t find a solution that worked for Twitter and so pulled its alpha service.
Every time someone on a third-party app signs into Twitter, they use an individual user token. Starting last month, third-party Twitter clients must get explicit permission from Twitter to use more than 100,000 tokens or have more than 100,000 individual Twitter account holders using the app. Tweetbot tried to work around this restriction, but according to a company blog post, it couldn’t find a solution that worked for Twitter and so pulled its alpha service.
Five days later, Tweetbot released a beta version, but under restrictive terms. Only current alpha users can access the beta, and Tweetbot can’t authorize new accounts.
Flipboard
Twitter says in its blog post: “Tweets that are grouped together into a timeline should not be rendered with non-Twitter content, e.g. comments, updates from other networks.”
Twitter says in its blog post: “Tweets that are grouped together into a timeline should not be rendered with non-Twitter content, e.g. comments, updates from other networks.”
Flipboard’s Cover Stories feature goes against Twitter’s new API rules by combining tweets with Facebook statuses, Instagram photos, and other social networks you’ve connected to the service. Of course, Flipboard could pull Twitter from Cover Stories, but since people can still check popular tweets with the Flipboard apps, Twitter might attack them for syndicating content.
If it does come to pass, getting cut off from Twitter might hurt Flipboard the least of all the services listed because it’s also a popular RSS reader. That said, a lot of people count on it to keep up with their Twitter feeds, and losing the micro-blogging site’s API could send users packing. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue left Twitter’s Board of Directors in early August, before Twitter announced the changes to its API.
Storify
In its API update announcement, Twitter’s Sippey included a four-quadrant graph of good API activity that Twitter encourages and bad API activity that it wants to limit. Twitter used Storify as an example of services that fall into the bad top-right quadrant with other services Twitter deems undesirable. After the announcement went out, Twitter’s director of platform Ryan Sarver tweeted that Storify doesn’t really belong in the bad quadrant:
In its API update announcement, Twitter’s Sippey included a four-quadrant graph of good API activity that Twitter encourages and bad API activity that it wants to limit. Twitter used Storify as an example of services that fall into the bad top-right quadrant with other services Twitter deems undesirable. After the announcement went out, Twitter’s director of platform Ryan Sarver tweeted that Storify doesn’t really belong in the bad quadrant:
The tweet did little to clarify which apps Twitter believe should be limited, but helped ease Storify fans’ fears that their beloved service would face Twitter’s API vengeance.
Storify’s API access might be safe, but it might end up fighting against the very company that helped it become popular in the first place. On Wednesday Twitter announced a new timeline widget that can be embedded on any website. You can set the widget to show all the tweets from your account, tweets with a specified hashtag, or tweets from a list you’ve created. Seems Storify has a new competitor.
Facebook also had a habit of co-opting some of the best features of popular applications on its service too. Remember RockYou and Slide? Maybe not quite roadkill, but salvage would be a generous description of their fate.
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