When Twitter announced it would no longer provide free API access, some disappointed third-party developers said that they would have to deactivate fun bots they had made in their spare time.
When Twitter rolled out the pricing for its paid API tiers last week, many indie developers announced they would have to shut down apps they had made for the platform. These distraught devs included those that had created services making hundreds to thousands of dollars a month, as the new API subscription tiers from Twitter would even priced them out.
Now, the Elon Musk-owned company has seemingly cut off API access to even some of the largest Twitter-based apps – including some that wanted to pay the exorbitant new fees which start at $42,000 per month.
On early Tuesday morning, a number of tech founders found that Twitter had suspended their apps from accessing the Twitter API. Twitter previously said last week that it would "deprecate current access" to the old free Twitter API day plans over the next 30 days. However, the move to suspend the API access today took many by surprise.
Perhaps the most surprised, though, are the few developers who actually agreed to pay Twitter tens of thousands of dollars per month.
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"Tweet Hunter has been banned from Twitter," tweeted the founder of the Twitter content-creating web app TweetHunter.io. "5,426 Twitter power users are affected. No warning, no email, nada. We have no idea why."
Enterprise plan applicants were cut off while on the waitlist
According to these developers, Twitter hasn't even responded to their application to move onto its new Enterprise plans. Today's move completely breaks their app.
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"@TwitterDev is this the new developer ecosystem that you're excited about?" tweeted the founder of the social media management app Publer. "Despite the 30 days notice and the Enterprise application wait time, you force us to switch today."
Like Publer, Tweet Hunter says it also applied to the Enterprise API plan when it was first announced and yet have received no contact from Twitter since.
Some other Twitter-based apps, like FeedHive, have also been cut off today. However, the founder of FeedHive has previously said it was not planning to pay for the high-priced Enterprise API offerings.
It's important to note what many of these apps do. Unlike Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Twitterific, which Musk's Twitter banned earlier this year, none of the apps replicate Twitter's platform. Users still have to regularly go to the company's own website, mobile apps, or clients. What these apps do is help facilitate more content creation for Twitter and encourage usage of the platform. By destroying its third-party app ecosystem, Twitter is essentially shooting itself in the foot.
In a private Slack group which has now ballooned to nearly 850 members who specifically run Twitter-based apps, many still hold out hope that Musk will hear their pleas and roll out more affordable API plans than the $42,000 per month entry point for Enterprise tiers. The company's actions today affecting even those businesses who are interested in paying those pricey API subscription plans do not bode well for the future of third-party apps for Twitter.
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