There are several ways to read Twitter.
One is in the internet tool at twitter.com.
But many people also useor usedindependently-developed apps to read and tweet.
Mockup Photos / Stocksnap
Twitterrific was officially discontinued today and pulled off the App Store after 16 years of development.
The apps had not broken any rules.
Twitter had justaltered its terms of service to make it seem that way.
Souvik Banerjee / Unsplash
The average user may not notice much difference, but businesses and agencies running branded Twitter accounts certainly will.
But why did Twitter do this?
The idea that somehow the third-party app ecosystem is leaching off Twitter is absurd.
Twitter is not like Netflix or Spotify, where users just passively watch.
Twitters entire product is the combined creation of its millions of users.
Twitter itself creates nothing.
And how much would you bet those app users are also the most engaged in posting tweets?
Bad for Business
The ban on third-party apps is also bad for businesses.
Those apps aren’t just for giving you a nicer experience on your timeline.
There are also plenty of utility apps.
“Lena Grundhoefer, co-founder and CEO of theZeitg3istemarketing and social media agency, told Lifewire via email.
Large publications also use tools based on Twitter’s API to post their stories.
While it’s unlikely that Twitter will cut those off too, who knows at this point?
Recently, it has been clear that users, and now developers, are not the priority.
And that’s what’s driving us all away.
There was no “retweeting.”
The same with hashtags and @replies.
Both of these rose organically, and Twitter incorporated them.
Even theTwitter bird logo, Larry, was copied fromyou guessed itthird-party Twitter appTwitterific by Iconfactory.
And Twitterificone of the now-banned appsalsocoined the term “tweet.”
The good news is that some of these developers are now working onequally great apps for Mastodon.
