wow. i was actually considering making a twitter client for my own use (and maybe others). but given how hellbent Twitter is on making life difficult for third party devs I have no confidence in this. also: $339/month for more than 15 accounts? come on. We're not all Twitter, Twitter.
Given the past 2 months of rage against Facebook, I don't understand how it's rational for any social media company to have a public API anymore.
If you go back look at when Facebook actually changed their API to stop the stuff that CA was doing, you'll see similar comments about how it's "killing the developer ecosystem". But ultimately it was a good thing that they closed those loopholes.
I love Tweetbot, I love that it syncs between iOs and Mac. I like having a chronological timeline, I love that it keeps where I am in the timeline, I like the interface with the side swipes, etc.
This is a terrible move by Twitter. It might be a relatively small number of users, but it's mostly power-users and super-fans, and this needlessly hurts them.
If Twitter wants to make more money from them, just add ads in the third party stream. Don't try to kill third party apps.
When they announced the changes a while back I did a personal test and switched to using the Twitter website and their app on the iPhone. Outside of not showing ads, I think I know why they want to do away with 3rd party clients. 3rd party clients have them beat by a mile when it comes to ease of use. I don't think they can, nor want to compete with that. They'd rather show me what they think I want to see, rather than what I actually want to see. I just can't help feeling like my days on Twitter are numbered, which is sad having been on there for ten years now. I'm just not their target anymore.
Since Twitter killed Twitter for Mac, my Twitter usage declined 80%.
I switched to Tweetbot but still never liked it. I’ve been hoping a nicer client would come along.
The reason I used Twitter as much as I did was that it’s client made it super convenient while working to just open with a keyboard shortcut for a couple seconds, poke around and then hide again and get back to work.
Forcing me to the website means I have to actually think about using Twitter; I have to interrupt what I am doing, rather than being a reflex. It means they’re killing most of the other 20% of my usage.
I really think they’re throwing the baby out with the bath water here.
I have absolutely no problem with Twitter trying to earn money. I just don't get how they are trying to do it?
When I'm reading my Twitter timeline in Twitterific, I'm not seeing ads. Which is probably why twitter wants me to use their website.
But why don't they just require third-party apps to show paid tweets? IIRC it's not even possible currently, because ads don't show up in their API output.
It seems insane to stymie the universe of alternative CLIENTS when what you contrl is the MESSAGES.
What I don’t understand is why Twitter don’t maintain the existing streaming chronological ad-free API and allow third party clients to connect to it, but to charge users a subscription to enable it for their account. This, to me, is so obvious that I must be missing something. Potentially it’s along the lines of Facebook’s quoted $35/month income per US user, but I can’t be alone in being tempted to abandon the platform if forced to an ad-ridden 1st-party-client (or no client on desktop) with an algorithmic feed.
I browsed my first website in 1994. It was weird and took forever to load. Over time, I got a bunch of bookmarks and kept discovering new sites on a weekly basis.
These days, I browse HN, proggit, Twitter, Reddit and Metafilter regularly. If Twitter really does nerf their APIs, I'll have to stop visiting it because principles, and it will take 20% of my current Web universe with it.
Not sure if my other hotspots will take its place, or if I'll finally start turning away from the Web.
FWIW, on Mac I can recommend Twitter's own "TweetDeck" which is really quite great, multiple columns, multiple accounts, scheduled tweets, etc. Really hope they don't shut that down in addition to the main Twitter client...
The last update for TweetDeck Mac on the App Store was 14 July 2015 [1], and they discontinued TweetDeck for iPhone & Android back in 2013 [2]. Twitter seems to have little interest in native desktop apps.
(That said, the TweetDeck web app is not bad, and can be accessed by anyone at tweetdeck.twitter.com.)
TweetDeck was originally a third-party app developed using the API. Twitter keeps grabbing up the good stuff people build on the API and then shutting down any competitors.
The solution for my addiction to twitter is to ocassionally delete Tweetbot on Mac and iOS, and use Twitter app or website.
Sad that apps like Tweetbot wont have the full features
Gald that Twitter is addressing my problems with wasting so much time on Tweetbot!
I'm not sure, but Twitter will be losing a huge user base that is very influential and add a good chunk of value to the platform, that can afford to pay, like even $10 - $20 a month for these 3rd party apps. Not sure why Twitter cannot come up with a paid subscription model through third party apps for power users.
Is there any legal barrier to just parse the html of twitters normal pages?
If I write an app for myself, I'm pretty sure it's legal.
If I sell my app, I would think it's still legal. It's similar to an ad blocker. It sits on the users computer and formats the page the user wants it formatted.
> Is there any legal barrier to just parse the html of twitters normal pages?
That wouldn't be a worthwhile effort, as it woulnd't give you any of the features the API deprecation is taking away (notifications, streaming vs polling, & a few others). You could just use the new API and live without those things more easily than trying to maintain a web-scraping setup.
Not sure about the legality of it, but what happens to your app when Twitter changes their HTML structure (without notice, which is how it would be)? If it fails, users will likely just go elsewhere.
I've said this before, but Twitter should have an app store. Sure, have third party apps, but have them be vetted and I suppose be required to display Twitter's ads in an approved way. Everybody wins?
Can someone give a short summary of the changes and what will be axed? From a quick look, follower counts should still be easy to retrieve from the free tier, right?
They're removing the streaming APIs, these allow a single long term connection to receive tweets, follows, etc... in favor of a Webhook solution.
The issue is that there are not comparable solutions. The streaming API allows a user to connection directly. With the webhook solution it has to all go via 3rd party server, and you need to pay for it.
Whenever things like this come up, I think "What can I do with their 'official API' that I can't get from just parsing the regular twitter.com/(URL goes here) pages?"
It's about getting information in realtime, i.e. @mentions, DMs. Polling for that sort of stuff is time consuming and you'll hit the limits pretty quickly.
[+] [-] swang|7 years ago|reply
Not. Even. Three. Years.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..
0: https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/21/9586084/jack-dorsey-twit...
[+] [-] swyx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bukhmanizer|7 years ago|reply
If you go back look at when Facebook actually changed their API to stop the stuff that CA was doing, you'll see similar comments about how it's "killing the developer ecosystem". But ultimately it was a good thing that they closed those loopholes.
[+] [-] IB885588|7 years ago|reply
This is a terrible move by Twitter. It might be a relatively small number of users, but it's mostly power-users and super-fans, and this needlessly hurts them.
If Twitter wants to make more money from them, just add ads in the third party stream. Don't try to kill third party apps.
[+] [-] f1nch3r|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] donatj|7 years ago|reply
I switched to Tweetbot but still never liked it. I’ve been hoping a nicer client would come along.
The reason I used Twitter as much as I did was that it’s client made it super convenient while working to just open with a keyboard shortcut for a couple seconds, poke around and then hide again and get back to work.
Forcing me to the website means I have to actually think about using Twitter; I have to interrupt what I am doing, rather than being a reflex. It means they’re killing most of the other 20% of my usage.
I really think they’re throwing the baby out with the bath water here.
[+] [-] phero_cnstrcts|7 years ago|reply
Before it was always at a reserved spot on my 2nd screen.
I kinda miss it - but not enough to open a tab in my browser and log in.
[+] [-] matt4077|7 years ago|reply
When I'm reading my Twitter timeline in Twitterific, I'm not seeing ads. Which is probably why twitter wants me to use their website.
But why don't they just require third-party apps to show paid tweets? IIRC it's not even possible currently, because ads don't show up in their API output.
It seems insane to stymie the universe of alternative CLIENTS when what you contrl is the MESSAGES.
[+] [-] robin_reala|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nolok|7 years ago|reply
I sincerely believe they don't even have a good understanding on how and why their platform really works for people.
The trend of shutting down clients and api has been going on for years now. This is ridiculous.
[+] [-] eugeniub|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bantunes|7 years ago|reply
These days, I browse HN, proggit, Twitter, Reddit and Metafilter regularly. If Twitter really does nerf their APIs, I'll have to stop visiting it because principles, and it will take 20% of my current Web universe with it.
Not sure if my other hotspots will take its place, or if I'll finally start turning away from the Web.
[+] [-] snthd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chx|7 years ago|reply
> SPIDR is an AI-powered news aggregator that uses textual analysis to group similar news together
> The aim is to provide fast access to relevant news from different viewpoints
Comments, vote up/down is available.
[+] [-] keeptrying|7 years ago|reply
By now they should have a massive developer ecosystem but these arbitrary measures Lead to no developer wanting to build on Twitter.
[+] [-] epaga|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SyneRyder|7 years ago|reply
(That said, the TweetDeck web app is not bad, and can be accessed by anyone at tweetdeck.twitter.com.)
[1] https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tweetdeck/id485812721?mt=12
[2] https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2013/an-update-on-...
[+] [-] daveFNbuck|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] calvinbhai|7 years ago|reply
Sad that apps like Tweetbot wont have the full features Gald that Twitter is addressing my problems with wasting so much time on Tweetbot!
I'm not sure, but Twitter will be losing a huge user base that is very influential and add a good chunk of value to the platform, that can afford to pay, like even $10 - $20 a month for these 3rd party apps. Not sure why Twitter cannot come up with a paid subscription model through third party apps for power users.
[+] [-] TekMol|7 years ago|reply
If I write an app for myself, I'm pretty sure it's legal.
If I sell my app, I would think it's still legal. It's similar to an ad blocker. It sits on the users computer and formats the page the user wants it formatted.
Am I missing something?
[+] [-] djrogers|7 years ago|reply
That wouldn't be a worthwhile effort, as it woulnd't give you any of the features the API deprecation is taking away (notifications, streaming vs polling, & a few others). You could just use the new API and live without those things more easily than trying to maintain a web-scraping setup.
[+] [-] cmg|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nielsbot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joeblau|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] haakon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] haywirez|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elFarto|7 years ago|reply
The issue is that there are not comparable solutions. The streaming API allows a user to connection directly. With the webhook solution it has to all go via 3rd party server, and you need to pay for it.
[+] [-] userbinator|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnBooty|7 years ago|reply
You could certainly build a barebones scraper in a very minimal amount of time, and that would probably work forever.
The amount of work required to go from "bare bones" to "actually pretty nice" ala Tweetbot is not a trivial amount of work though.
[+] [-] rythie|7 years ago|reply