Twitter has officially disabled its free API, which, as expected, breaks a number of applications and websites. The company had previously stated that it would terminate access at the beginning of February, but has since postponed the action without providing an updated timeline.
However, since unveiling its new paid API tiers a week ago, the company appears to have begun shutting off the thousands of developers who rely on its free developer tools. A number of app developers and other services have reported that the Twitter API is no longer operational over the past few days.
According to Mashable, the shutdown appears to have begun Tuesday morning, but many developers are still trying to figure out what’s happening because Twitter does not appear to have informed the majority of developers about the changes.
It’s not easy even for developers who are willing to pay for the API to use it.
As part of a larger reorganization of its developer strategy, Twitter has abruptly changed its rules to prohibit third-party Twitter clients, resulting in the termination of its free API. However, as previously reported, third-party clients represented only a minor portion of the developers, researchers, automation builders, and others who utilized Twitter’s APIs.
For instance, applications and websites that utilized Twitter’s API to facilitate the sharing of content to and from Twitter will no longer be able to do so. WordPress announced on Tuesday that it could no longer access the API, preventing its websites from automatically posting to Twitter. According to the company, the problem has been resolved.