Your favorite Twitter accounts and services may soon die.
Say goodbye to some of your favorite Twitter apps, automated accounts, tools and services. Twitter will now force anyone who creates creative things that make the platform fun and enjoyable to pay or walk away.
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In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Twitter’s official developer account, @TwitterDev, announced that the company would no longer provide a free tier of access to its API. Instead, there will soon be a paid subscription at Twitter’s basic API level. And how soon will that happen? Next week. February 9.
An API is a software interface that allows two applications to communicate with each other, and this one in particular allows developers to access Twitter data and services through official channels. In turn, many developers have been able to create a range of free and paid products that enhance the Twitter experience. Requiring payment will certainly kill many free services and accounts.
The answer has already been heavily criticized by users at all levels. Some developers have already announcement(Opens in a new tab) their intention to end their Twitter projects.
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For example, the creator of the Possum Every Hour Twitter account, which automatically tweets a picture of a possum every hour, job(Opens in a new tab) that the account will stop tweeting next week when the free API tier ends. The account has over half a million followers on Twitter.
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The decision to remove all free access to its API shows how badly Twitter struggles to make money. The company lost around 50% of its advertisers, who are its main source of revenue, after Musk took over and started implementing his vision for the Twitter platform. To make up for lost revenue, Musk rolled out new paid products such as its $8 Twitter Blue premium plan. The ability to purchase a verified badge with Twitter Blue has disabled even more brands from the platform. And, so far, Twitter hasn’t even been able to convert 0.1% of its monthly active users into paying subscribers.
Removing the free API tier is a questionable path to increased revenue, as it could stifle the creativity of developers who aren’t looking to monetize their projects. These creators often create services that promote and encourage increased use of Twitter. Small indie developers just starting out will be able to implement their ideas on platforms that still offer free API access, like Facebook or YouTube.
It is important to note that Twitter already has a paid service level for its API. This existing premium tier, which lifts the access limits implemented on the basic tier, serves social media companies that derive revenue from the Twitter data offering.
And what about scammers and spambots? Won’t this decision kill them? Not likely.
Access to Twitter’s API required a user to apply and be approved for an official developer account. Thus, Twitter was able to monitor its use and detect bad actors. For this reason, many scammers and spammers who use automation never used the API in the first place, instead operating with workarounds such as web scrapers.
Elon Musk already killed third-party Twitter clients like Twitterific and Tweetbot earlier this month. This week alone, users complained about Musk’s recent algorithm changes rendering their streams unusable. Now he comes for everything else. He gave the developers no details regarding the cost of keeping their projects and services alive. And, oh yeah, don’t forget, these developers only have a week to figure it all out.
