What happens when third-party Twitter developers hit the API limit for user tokens? The results aren't pretty.
When Twitter announced its big API changes back in August, one of the most controversial changes was the decision to cap applications that "replicate the core Twitter experience" to 100,000 user tokens (Twitter accounts that can access the app).
Twitter clients that had built up large user bases before the API changes went into effect — such as Twitterrific and Osfoora — were allowed to double in size before Twitter said it would pull the plug.
The same cannot be said for Twitter clients that saw sizable audiences after the new rules were implemented. Enter Tweetro, a Twitter client for Windows 8 that wanted to offer users the best Twitter experience that follows along with the Windows 8 design guidelines.
Tweetro was a free app and quickly became one of the most popular downloads in the Windows Store. Until Twitter brings its official Windows 8 app to the market, Tweetro was one of the best alternatives for Windows 8 users looking for their Twitter fix.
Unfortunately for Tweetro, the app was a victim of its own popularity — skyrocketing past 100,000 user tokens in the days after Windows 8?s release. At a certain point, Twitter pulled the plug on offering access to the app and users were unable to login via OAuth.
As a result, Lazyworm Applications was forced to pull Tweetro from the Windows Store because the company was unable to service its users. Developers were holding onto hope that they would be able to work something out with Twitter and applied for a token exemption.
Today, Tweetro heard back from Twitter. The news isn't good. As Windows Observer reports, Twitter's not budging. Tweetro will not get an increase in user tokens.
The statement Twitter sent to Lazyworm Applications said in part:
"Unfortunately, It does not appear that your service addresses an area that our current or future products do not already serve. As such, it does not qualify for an exemption."
In other words, because Twitter has a Windows 8 client in the works, it doesn't see the need to allow a third party to continue to use its API.
As a result, Lazyworm says its going to do what Tapbots has done with Tweetbot for Mac — charge for the app in an effort to reduce the number of user tokens. In Tapbots's case, the company is charging $20 for Tweetbot for Mac in order to sustain the cost of development (and likely depress what would otherwise surely be sales that would quickly exceed the company's token limits).
We're Just Getting Started
The situation that Tweetro faces is particularly disconcerting because Twitter doesn't have an official client on the market at this time. The alternative is for users to use less popular apps or the Twitter website. The Twitter website, as it exists today, doesn't work particularly well with Windows 8 or Windows RT on a touch screen, making a good client app more necessary.
While Tweetro is the first app to hit Twitter's token limits, it won't be the last. If Twitter continues to stick to its guns on this issue (and we think the company will), it's only a matter of time before apps that have built up audiences and users over longer periods of time hit the limit too.
To be fair, Twitter stopped encouraging developers to build Twitter clients back in March 2011, so they can't pretend to be totally caught off guard.
Still, the move to limiting API tokens is a big shift for a company that owes much of its early success to third-party developers (and Twitter client developers at that).
Twitter's position is that it needs to control the way tweets are displayed — as well as how promoted tweets, promoted trends and other sponsored tweets are integrated across platforms. It's difficult to do this with third-party apps.
For now, its a nascent set of users and developers that feel the rub. It will be more telling to see what the Twitter community does when — not if — a larger third-party client succumbs to the new API rules.
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