Elon Musk seems to be struggling to make the first payout in the massive deal that won Twitter, but he seems to have found time to screw up the platform’s developers and users.
This doesn’t refer to the launch of Twitter Blue for Android or any new option to pay for Blue for a year. Instead, Twitter said “developer agreement,” removes the ability for third-party clients to work.
The streak began last week when users of popular clients like Tweetbot on iOS and Fenix on Android opened their favorite apps and found that they weren’t working. The show was just beginning.
Surprisingly, for someone as vocal as Musk to voice his opinion, he did a great job of “radio silence” when it comes to third-party apps. This is the same person who posted multiple polls on whether we should hire a new CEO or unblock certain accounts.
“You may not use or access the Licensed Material to create or attempt to create or create alternative or similar services or products for the Twitter Application.”
Twitter Developer Agreement
There’s already a mountain of uncertainty surrounding the platform, and non-functioning third-party clients just add another layer. So it looks like we finally have an answer.
The only change made to the contract seems to be from the “restrictions” section. It says, “Use or access the Licensed Material to create or attempt to create a service or product that replaces or is similar to the Twitter Application.”
That’s all.
Third-party Twitter apps are virtually dead, and that’s likely to remain the case until Twitter is acquired by another entity or Musk leaves the driver’s seat.
There’s definitely an argument that third-party apps shouldn’t have become the “standard”. Even before the former acquired the latter, you can’t download another app to use Facebook or Instagram. But frankly, it’s a bullshit argument. Because the ability to bypass all of Twitter’s pointless algorithm and app changes over the years has allowed us to continue enjoying the platform.
For the time being, it looks like “good days” or Twitter is completely gone.
