You’re not alone: Third-party Twitter clients are currently broken
Manuel Vonau
Twitter has always had a thriving ecosystem of third-party clients. They’re great when you’re looking for extra features, fewer algorithmic suggestions, and a different design. The company has long worked on reducing the utility of third-party clients, though, down to restricting how many people can use a given third-party client. Right now, none of them seem to work, though. It looks like Twitter has turned off its third-party API, whether on purpose or not, leaving those who rely on third-party apps in the dark.
2 Images
Logging in to Talon for Twitter is currently not possible
The issue has been ongoing since about 10:30 pm ET on Thursday, January 12, and it’s not clear if there is a resolution anywhere in sight. Multiple users and many third-party app developers have taken to Twitter to report the problem. Tweetbot’s Paul Haddad talked to TechCrunch, explaining to the publication that since last night, all API requests from his app are failing. Since Haddad doesn't have a direct line of communication with Twitter anymore, it's unclear what exactly is going on.
The issues aren’t limited to a few clients only, either. Fenix and Talon report similar issues, and those are just some of the more high-profile options. The publication further found out that apps are marked as suspended on the Twitter Developers forum, which isn't good news.
So far, Twitter hasn’t commented on the issue publicly. It’s possible that this is a mistake, and something went wrong during an update to the API, which is certainly an option given how many key long-term employees were let go by the company since Elon Musk’s takeover. It also wouldn’t be surprising if this is an intentional change. Twitter currently faces financial difficulties, with the company partially refusing to pay its offices’ rents, resulting in employees standing in front of closed doors. Since third-party clients don't display ads, this might be a move to generate more revenue via the official client. Given that some of the apps are marked as suspended in the Twitter Developers forum, the latter might be the scenario we're looking at.
If you're experiencing different issues on the official client, be sure to check out the most common problems and learn how to solve them.
Manuel Vonau
Twitter has always had a thriving ecosystem of third-party clients. They’re great when you’re looking for extra features, fewer algorithmic suggestions, and a different design. The company has long worked on reducing the utility of third-party clients, though, down to restricting how many people can use a given third-party client. Right now, none of them seem to work, though. It looks like Twitter has turned off its third-party API, whether on purpose or not, leaving those who rely on third-party apps in the dark.
2 Images
Logging in to Talon for Twitter is currently not possible
The issue has been ongoing since about 10:30 pm ET on Thursday, January 12, and it’s not clear if there is a resolution anywhere in sight. Multiple users and many third-party app developers have taken to Twitter to report the problem. Tweetbot’s Paul Haddad talked to TechCrunch, explaining to the publication that since last night, all API requests from his app are failing. Since Haddad doesn't have a direct line of communication with Twitter anymore, it's unclear what exactly is going on.
The issues aren’t limited to a few clients only, either. Fenix and Talon report similar issues, and those are just some of the more high-profile options. The publication further found out that apps are marked as suspended on the Twitter Developers forum, which isn't good news.
So far, Twitter hasn’t commented on the issue publicly. It’s possible that this is a mistake, and something went wrong during an update to the API, which is certainly an option given how many key long-term employees were let go by the company since Elon Musk’s takeover. It also wouldn’t be surprising if this is an intentional change. Twitter currently faces financial difficulties, with the company partially refusing to pay its offices’ rents, resulting in employees standing in front of closed doors. Since third-party clients don't display ads, this might be a move to generate more revenue via the official client. Given that some of the apps are marked as suspended in the Twitter Developers forum, the latter might be the scenario we're looking at.
If you're experiencing different issues on the official client, be sure to check out the most common problems and learn how to solve them.
Similar Readings (5 items)
Tweetbot and other Twitter apps still broken as Elon Musk stays silent
Tweetbot is back down again
Twitter API dies in the night, cutting off third-party apps
3rd-party Twitter app ‘suspensions are intentional,’ still no public communication
Personal data of over 230 million Twitter users allegedly leaked
Summary
Third-party Twitter apps broken due to API issues; apps like Talon, Tweetbot, Fenix experiencing login failures since January 12. Developer Paul Haddad reports all API requests from Tweetbot are failing. No official comment from Twitter on the matter yet, but it could be a mistake or intentional