Third-party Twitter apps may soon no longer work properly
If you're using third-party clients or tools for Twitter, then you may encounter some issues with them in following days. The social network is changing its API and, as a result, numerous third-party apps will be crippled or downgraded. For example, a popular app called Tweetbot will no longer have instant timeline streaming on WiFi capabilities or the ability to send push notifications for retweets, likes or quotes. It seems that Twitter's Apple Watch app will also be affected.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term, an application programming interface (API) is a framework that allows third-party developers to interact with a service or application. Twitter's API changes are expected to start rolling out today and the entire process should be completed by August 23rd. Unfortunately, this means that you don't have a lot of time to think about alternatives if your favorite third-party client is no longer functioning correctly. However, you should also know that the API change was originally set to take place on June 19th, but it was then delayed to give third-party developers more time to make the necessary changes to their apps. Furthermore, Twitter didn't completely destroy any functionality that was previously available, so it's up to each app-maker to recreate their features.
Truth be told, Twitter's current API was slightly outdated and it made it easy for trolls and bots to take advantage of it. Furthermore, let's not forget that not all third-party developers have the user's best interest in mind; a little over a year ago, Twitter was forced to revoke the access of numerous third-party app makers after these used the service's API for illegal surveillance purposes.
