Tweetbot and Twitterrific Shut Down Following Twitter Ban on Third Party Apps

Tweetbot and Twitterrific have officially shut down following a ban on third party apps by Twitter.

Multiple third party Twitter clients stopped working a week ago without any warning from the company or @elonmusk. Initially, there was speculation that its API may have gone down; however, after a few days, it became clear that the company deliberately blocked select applications.

On January 17, @TwitterDev tweeted:


Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.

Following this notice, developers questioned which API rules were broken; however, no clarification was provided.

Twitter then updated its Developer Agreement to officially ban third party apps.

The Restrictions on Use of Licensed Material now says "You will not or attempt to (and will not allow others to) .... c) use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications;


This led to Twitterrific calling it quits after sixteen years...

We are sorry to say that the app's sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer.

Since 2007, Twitterrific helped define the shape of the Twitter experience. It was the first desktop client, the first mobile client, one of the very first apps in the App Store, an Apple Design award winner, and it even helped redefine the word "tweet" in the dictionary. Ollie, Twitterrific's bluebird mascot, was so popular it even prompted Twitter themselves to later adopt a bluebird logo of their very own. Our little app made a big dent on the world!




Today, Tapbots announced the shut down of its popular Tweetbot app as well.

Say Goodbye to Tweetbot.

We've been proud to serve you over the last 12+ years, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we have to shut down Tweetbot.

Thank you so much for your patience and outpouring of support over these tough times at Tapbots.


While we can understand that Twitter may have had to take drastic steps to survive, this situation appears to have been handled with complete and utter disrespect to the developers that helped make Twitter what it is today. We're sad to see them go.

While subscriptions will be cancelled, IconFactory has asked users to consider not asking for a refund on prior charges as thousands of refunds would be devastating to the small company.

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