Twitter has clarified rules for how developers can use its API. Image: Peter McCollough 
In June, Twitter’s Michael Sippey wrote a blog post that put the fear of birds into just about every developer on the platform. Ostensibly a post about delivering a consistent user experience, it also noted that “in the coming weeks, we will be introducing stricter guidelines around how the Twitter API is used.” Despite warnings that fears were overblown, developers widely interpreted this to mean they could be cut loose from Twitter’s data.
On Thursday, in a new post from Sippey, Twitter clarified its position and announced a new version of its API. The latest version requires anyone using the Twitter API to be authenticated, institutes a rate limiting feature, and makes big changes to the ways developers can use Twitter’s data. Tweets must now be displayed in a manner consistent with Twitter’s rules, otherwise Twitter can revoke a developer’s API keys. Twitter clients that come pre-installed on phones and chipsets will now have to be explicitly approved by Twitter — or no API for you. Perhaps most significantly, the new API limits user tokens.
“We will require you to work with us directly if you believe your application will need more than one million individual user tokens,” writes Sippey. Companies building traditional third-party Twitter clients will face an even more austere limit:
If your application already has more than 100,000 individual user tokens, you’ll be able to maintain and add new users to your application until you reach 200% of your current user token count (as of today) — as long as you comply with our Rules of the Road. Once you reach 200% of your current user token count, you’ll be able to maintain your application to serve your users, but you will not be able to add additional users without our permission.
In short, when the new API rules go into effect, Twitter will throttle the way developers who build client applications like Tweetbot or Echofon, that essentially duplicate the tools Twitter provides in its own app, can use the platform’s service. The new rules appear to be an attempt by the company to make sure it can finance its enormous, always flowing stream of data. That means Twitter is going to require client apps to meet its terms, and will limit how much data each can get via authentication.
Twitter is not, however, saying it doesn’t want developers using its data at all. The post very explicitly encourages development — as long as developers are providing services Twitter itself does not. The news should provide some assurance for developers who may have been shaken by the company’s previous post in June. That is, unless you’re Echofon.
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/twitters-new-api/
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