Tag: Twitter

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Elon Musk says bots with ‘good content’ will get free Twitter API access

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has partially walked back plans to charge for access to Twitter’s API, although as always the details remain unclear.

In a series of tweets on February 2nd, Musk claimed Twitter’s free API was being “abused badly right now by bot scammers & opinion manipulators,” and suggested charging around $100 USD (about $134 CAD) per month and performing ID verification would “clean things up greatly.”

The following day, Musk tweeted about potentially giving verified (read: Blue ‘Verified’ users, not legacy verified) users access to the API, and then on February 4th came back to the ongoing thread to say: “Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free.”

While the backtrack will be good for some, details remain sparse. Case in point: what constitutes “providing good content?” Will Musk have final say in which bots get free API access and which have to pay? Will it apply to future bots, or just the ones that currently exist? These and other questions will need to wait until we see an official announcement from Twitter since, for now, Musk’s tweets fail to offer pertinent details.

This all comes after Twitter announced plans to remove free access to its API on February 9th and instead charge for access. The plan was met with frustration from developers and researchers who rely on the free API, particularly those who used it to build helpful tools available for free to users.

Several developers announced plans to shutter these bots ahead of the February 9th deadline, but this change could save some of the tools, assuming they meet Musk’s “good content” requirement and the light API is sufficient for what the bots need to work.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out and whether Twitter’s push to get developers to pay for API access will help Musk escape the mountain of debt tied to him and his new social media company.

Source: @elonmusk Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Some games warn Twitter API changes could lock players out

If you use Twitter to log into any important services, games, or other stuff, you may want to set up alternate login methods. Twitter’s upcoming API changes may break your ability to log in with Twitter.

At least, that’s the warning from two popular online games. Genshin Impact and Arknights (spotted by The Verge) both shared warnings on Twitter that gamers should change their logins just in case.

Genshin Impact tweeted that it’s ” in the process of confirming the impact of the Twitter API adjustments on game account login” and suggested in a follow-up that customers link their email address to their HoYoverse account to avoid login problems.

Similarly, Arknights tweeted that players should bind their game accounts to a Yostar account in case of issues stemming from Twitter’s API change. (I particularly enjoyed the perplexing image tweeted in response to the warning).

These warnings come after Twitter announced plans to remove the free tier of its API and start charging for access. It remains unclear if the adjustment will impact login services like this, but given how Elon Musk’s previous rash changes impacted Twitter, better safe than sorry.

Source: Genshin Impact, Arknights Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter to start charging for access to its free API

Twitter will stop offering free access to its API starting February 9th, a move that — unsurprisingly — has frustrated developers.

The Twitter Dev account announced that change on February 2nd at 1:05am ET in a tweet, writing that the platform would instead offer a “paid basic tier” instead. The account went on to tweet that its data is “among the world’s most powerful data sets.”

The Twitter Application Programming Interface (API) enables third parties to access and analyze public Twitter data. The API is used for a variety of things, such as programmable bots, or separate apps that connect to the platform, like Thread Reader, which turns Twitter threads into easier-to-read text blocks.

The Verge notes that Twitter currently offers free, but limited, API access with paid tiers for scaling up access. Although the company doesn’t publicly share the price of its API tiers, The Verge cited a Twitter Community post noting the costs, which start at $99 USD (about $131.69 CAD) per month. Presumably, the new basic paid tier would fall below that price.

Unfortunately, the change will likely impact various small developers that used the free API access to create fun or useful tools and bots that weren’t intended to turn a profit. When the changes come into effect, most of those tools will either shut down or start charging some kind of fee to recoup the costs of accessing Twitter’s API. It’ll also impact other groups, like students and scientists who use the platform to gather information for research or study online behaviours.

Moreover, the changes come after Twitter abruptly banned developers from making third-party Twitter apps, leading to the shutdown of popular apps like Twitterific and Tweetbot.

All of these recent changes have happened rapidly, with little or no warning for developers. The company is seemingly much less friendly towards those who built tools and apps that helped make Twitter the platform that it is today, especially as the company appears to just be trying to make a quick buck to help Musk pay off his debt.

Source: Twitter Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Former Twitter employees sitting on abandoned company laptops: report

Several former Twitter employees are sitting on valuable hardware, like company laptops, that Twitter has seemingly abandoned.

As detailed by Wired, while Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk scrambles to make the company profitable to pay back some $13 billion USD (roughly $17.35 billion CAD) owed to lenders for financing his takeover, some more obvious ways to make a quick buck appear abandoned. Namely, after Musk rapidly laid off significant chunks of Twitter staff, the company has put little effort into collecting company hardware.

One software engineer fired in November told Wired that he hadn’t heard anything about returning a company-issued Apple MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip. The laptop was sitting in the engineer’s closet, digitally locked by Twitter after the engineer was fired. Wired notes that refurbished versions of the laptop can fetch around $1,000 (about $1,334.49 CAD). While the M1 Pro variant is no longer listed on Apple’s website, the base-level MacBook Pro with M2 Pro chip retails for $2,599 in Canada.

While some of the ex-Twitter employees are content to let their useless hardware sit in a closet, others are worried it could cause problems down the line. For example, some former employees who spoke with Wired were still owed severance and were worried having the laptops could lead to delays in their compensation or even legal problems. In chat groups of former employees, some discussed trying to crack their laptop’s lock code or wiping and resetting the device.

Meanwhile, some former employees were able to send their devices back, while others got generic emails from the company asking them to fill out a ‘Twitter Device Collection Survey.’ Wired says most of the employees it spoke with hadn’t received the email.

Wired obtained a copy of the survey, which mentions authentication tokens, corporate credit cards, company-issued smartphones and laptop chargers as items that can be returned. The form also noted that monitors, keyboards, mice, display cables and stands don’t need to be collected. It doesn’t clarify what former employees should do with laptops.

The survey also asks for an address to send a shipping box for ex-Twitter people to load up with returnable equipment, noting the box would arrive within 30 days of filling it out. There’s an option for dropping equipment off at some of Twitter’s offices.

However, Wired says that, generally, ex-employees aren’t rushing to return the equipment, with one telling the publication that “Elon can wait.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Wired

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter adds new rule banning third-party clients to developer agreement

Over the last week, developers of third-party Twitter clients have been frustrated by a sudden disruption to the functionality of their apps — a disruption Twitter has now made permanent.

On January 12th, many third-party apps stopped working. At first, developers and users gave the company the benefit of the doubt and thought it was a bug or glitch. It turns out that wasn’t the case. Reporting indicated Twitter made the change intentionally, and then Twitter itself seemed to back that up with a January 17th declaration that it was “enforcing its long-standing API rules.”

Except, the rule Twitter is enforcing didn’t exist until January 19th. On Thursday, Twitter updated its developer agreement with a new rule prohibiting the creation of third-party clients. According to Engadget, that’s the only substantive change to the 5,000-word agreement.

Specifically, the rule in question bans the “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

Moreover, Twitter’s claim about long-standing API rules conflicts with the company’s history. Take, for example, Twitterific, which was created before Twitter even had its own native iOS app. Not only was it a prominent third-party client, Twitterific is also credited with several ‘firsts’ for the platform, including first use of the word ‘tweet,’ first use of a bird icon, first to show a character counter while typing a tweet, first to support replies and conversations, and more.

Despite the importance of third-party clients in shaping the Twitter we all know and love (to hate) today, developers feel insulted by how things have ended. Since third-party clients stopped working earlier this month, Twitter has largely avoided communicating with developers about what was going on, and even the sparse communications the company released were misleading.

Several developers have discontinued their apps and pulled (or are considering pulling) them from the App Store and Play Store. Others are promising refunds to customers, often at great personal cost to the developers.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Twitter Developer Agreement Via: Engadget, Android Police

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Mobile Syrup

You can now subscribe to Twitter Blue on Android

Over a month after Twitter relaunched its Blue subscription on iOS and the web, Android users now have the privilege of overpaying for a blue checkmark.

Like on iOS, Twitter Blue costs $15/mo if you subscribe to it on Android (importantly, the app notes the price is a “limited time offer,” implying it will get more expensive in the future). Meanwhile, Blue still costs $10/mo if you subscribe through the web, or $105 if you go with the new annual subscription option that’s also only available through the web.

Unfortunately, Blue’s benefits remain scarce for subscribers. Aside from the Blue checkmark, Blue’s other benefits — like reduced ads — are listed as coming soon. Twitter’s Blue page also lists the priority feature as coming soon, despite it rolling out a couple days before Christmas.

To subscribe to Twitter Blue on Android, open the app and tap your profile icon in the top-left corner. Then tap ‘Twitter Blue,’ and tap ‘Subscribe,’ then follow the steps to pay through Google’s in-app payment system. With tax, you’ll end up paying $16.95/mo.

However, if Blue is really something you want to pay for, you’d be better off subscribing through the Twitter website and paying annually. So far, that’s the absolute cheapest way to get Blue.

Via: 9to5Google

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter finally acknowledges third-party app issue

Days after several third-party Twitter apps stopped working, Twitter finally seems to be acknowledging the problem.

Well, sort of.

A tweet from the Twitter Dev account blames the stoppage on enforcing “long-standing API rules.”

“Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working,” the tweet reads.

As previously reported, several third-party apps stopped working on January 12th. The move was thought to be intentional at the time, and according to Twitter’s latest statement, that seems to be the case.

Twitter has offered API allowing third parties to access the platform for years, letting developers build their own ways to access Twitter.

The company failed to provide any further explanation, including why it randomly started to enforce its “long-standing” rules without warning.

Source: @TwitterDev Via: iPhone in Canada

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter may have intentionally shut out third-party apps

Several third-party Twitter apps suddenly stopped working on January 12th. Four days later and there are still problems, along with some evidence that the move was intentional.

According to a report from The Information (it’s paywalled, but both The Verge and Daring Fireball detailed the report’s contents), a message posted to an internal Twitter Slack channel confirmed that what was happening to third-party apps was on purpose. Specifically, one cited message said outright that “third-party app suspensions are intentional.”

Other messages seen by The Information discussed when Twitter would publicly announce the decision about third-party apps. A product marketing manager responded that the company had “started to work on comms” but there was an ETA when it would be ready.

These details don’t inspire much confidence that Twitter will fix things. As a quick refresher, Twitter has long offered an API for third-party clients to access the platform. Although the API has gone through many changes over the years, the ability for any developer to build their own client for accessing Twitter arguably helped the whole platform flourish in the early days and has also helped push Twitter to improve its first-party clients.

While Twitter can do what it wants, the shuttering of the third-party API will be particularly disappointing. It likely won’t be a death blow to Twitter — advertisers fleeing the platform seem poised to do that — but losing beloved third-party clients could be the final straw for some people.

Source: The Information Via: Daring Fireball, The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Several third-party Twitter clients not working amid API issues

Several third-party Twitter clients are experiencing issues after Twitter’s third-party API went dark. It remains unclear what’s going on as so far, neither Twitter nor new owner and CEO Elon Musk have said anything about the issues.

The issues started around 10:30pm ET on January 12th and continued into the morning of January 13th.

Moreover, the problems appear to affect different apps in different ways. Some apps, like Tweetbot, report that all API requests from the app fail. Other developers report their apps show up as ‘suspended’ in Twitter’s developer portal. And still, other apps appear to be unaffected — Android Police notes relatively new client Harpy seems to be working, and in my testing, desktop client Tweeten seems to be working just fine (although it’s based on TweetDeck, which could explain why it still works).

For those unfamiliar with Twitter’s third-party API, it enables third-party clients (apps not made by Twitter itself) to access the platform. These clients were quite popular in the early days of Twitter since they often had more (or better) features than Twitter’s own mobile app. However, over the years, Twitter has changed and restricted aspects of the API, and there has been something of a fall-off in terms of using third-party clients.

While there are still plenty of people using third-party clients, for many, the additional hassle of third-party clients often wasn’t worth it. From my experience, third-party Twitter clients were some of my favourite apps, but it eventually became too difficult to use them effectively. Aside from Tweeten, which I mentioned above, I basically use the first-party Twitter app now.

Hopefully, the issues currently impacting third-party Twitter clients result from a change or update to the API and not because, as some have speculated, Twitter wants to kill third-party clients entirely. However, it remains to be seen how this all plays out.

Source: @mttvll (Fenix developer), Tweetbot Via: Android Police, TechCrunch, The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter says database of 200 million exposed email addresses, usernames, not part of system exploits

Twitter says reports of hundreds of leaked email addresses are unrelated to a 2021 breach.

Earlier this month, hackers shared a database with the usernames and email addresses of 200 million Twitter users, claiming the information came from breaches dating back to 2021.

“We conducted a thorough investigation, and there is no evidence that data recently being sold was obtained by exploiting a vulnerability of Twitter systems,” the company stated in a blog post.

Twitter says the data likely came together from public information that’s already available and “could not be correlated with the previously reported incident or any data originating from an exploitation of Twitter systems.”

Twitter updated its code in June 2021, resulting in a bug that would tell people what Twitter accounts were associated with specific email addresses and phone numbers. Twitter learned of the vulnerability in January 2022. While the bug impacted 5.4 million accounts in August 2022, no recent breaches of Twitter’s systems occurred.

Several cybersecurity analysts examined the breach, as The Verge reports, including Troy Hunt, the founder of Have I Been Pwned. The website allows people to search if their email addresses are part of data breaches.

Have I Been Pwned has now added the database to its website, and users can enter their emails to check if it’s part of the breach.

Even if the information on the 200 million accounts isn’t tied to a breach or includes any passwords, it is a cause for concern.

Twitter is asking its users to enable 2-factor authentication and remain observant of any emails. “Be wary of emails conveying a sense of urgency and emails requesting your private information, always double check that emails are coming from a legitimate Twitter source.”

Source: Twitter Via: The Verge