In 2018, Twitter decided to disable the API that gave third-party developers access to many of the social network’s features. This has greatly affected applications such as Tweetbot and other third-party clients that have lost some of their users. However, the company recently announced that some of these features will be added back to the Twitter API of the second version, in addition to additional parameters that will return some features to third-party applications.
Two years ago, Twitter limited push notifications and automatic feed updates in third-party Twitter clients . Although the company never discussed the real reasons for this decision, it is easy to guess that in this way Twitter tried to remove competing applications. The fact is that such clients do not show ads that are placed on a social network, and, therefore, the company does not receive money .
New Twitter apps
However, something has changed and now Twitter has introduced a new API for developers, which has been completely rebuilt with new features. One of the main innovations is the appearance of real-time tweet feed updates . Third-party applications can download new tweets again as they are published, and not just after a while.
Other API changes include threads, polls (finally!), Pinned tweets, an improved spam filter, and advanced search. That is, in the same Tweetbot, functionality may appear very soon, which until then was only in the proprietary Twitter application. Including polls, due to which many at one time had to switch to a standard client.
The API will be presented in three versions, only one of which is free. It will differ in a set of functions. But since these same Tweetbot developers charge money for their app, they can afford it. This is definitely good news for third-party Twitter client developers, as they can now make their apps more attractive with features that have been limited to the official Twitter app so far.
On July 15, attackers hacked into several popular Twitter accounts, including Apple, Ilon Mask, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama, Wendy’s, Uber, Mike Bloomberg and other famous personalities. The scammers posted messages with a proposal to double the money transfer that users will make in favor of their bitcoin wallet.
Already in the first minutes, cash receipts were poured into the accounts of the attackers, the total amount of which exceeded 100 thousand dollars. The exact amount of damage is still unknown, but Twitter is obviously waiting for a wave of litigation. The hack was made possible by a hacker using Twitter’s internal administration tool. The very fact that the social network has all the user passwords raises serious concerns.
