Third-party Twitter app developers are taking a financial hit from Musk’s restrictions

by James · March 4, 2023

In early January, Elon Musk and Twitter decided to exclude third-party apps, citing “enforcement of its long-standing API rules.”

The move not only affected the revenue of the developers, but they were also faced with the difficult decision of refunding thousands of subscribers. AppleInsider.

Created before Twitter even had its own native iOS app, Twitterific was a prominent third-party client credited with several “firsts” on the platform, including the first use of the word “tweet,” a bird icon, the first to display a character counter while typing a tweet, the first to support replies and conversations, and more.

Sean Heber, the founder of Twitterific, said in a blog post that the shutdown will significantly hurt their business. If you were [a] If you subscribe to Twitterrific for iOS, please consider not requesting a refund from Apple,” he wrote. “The loss of Twitterrific’s ongoing, recurring revenue is already significantly hurting our business, and any refunds will come directly out of our pockets — not Twitter’s and not Apple’s.”

“Simply put, thousands of refunds would be devastating to a small company like ours,” he added.

Today marks the end of an era. Unfortunately, we were forced to pull Twitterrific from both the iOS and Mac App Stores.

Since Twitter has inexplicably revoked our API access, there is no way forward for the app. Please read our blog for more information 🖖

— Twitterrific (@Twitterrific) January 19, 2023

Now both Twitterific and Tweetbot have updated their apps to give subscribers the option to decline a refund, as per DaringFireball. According to the report, all subscriptions to the apps were canceled when Apple decided to remove the App Store. However, users who had an ongoing subscription at the time, such as an annual subscription, could still update to the latest version of the app and tap the “I don’t need a refund” button to support the companies.

Musk’s move was criticized by developers and users alike and accused of monopolizing the Twitter platform; however, companies are already making progress. Tweetbot developer Tapbots said it is now accelerating development of its Mastodon app, Ivory, as a result of the shutdown.

Image credit: IconFactory

Source: AppleInsider