Twitter API Changes

tl;dr: Twitter will begin charging for APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. access, possibly as early as the 9th of February. If your pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party integrates with the API (be it v1.1 or v2), PLEASE make sure you look into the changes and how they might impact you!

Yesterday Twitter announced it will be charging for access to the API.

Estimated cost is ~$100/month, with a requirement of a valid ID, however there is no information yet as to how much traffic that entails. Since information is not going to be provided until next week (giving everyone a whopping max 3 days to figure this out), I wanted to make sure everyone was as notified as can be.

This will likely impact:

  • Auto-posting
  • Login with Twitter
  • Analytics
  • Management Tools
  • Scripted Interactions (auto-blocking etc)

Access to search is already a pay-only service.

If your plugin (or the related service) does any of those, you will have to investigate if this change impacts you. If you are impacted, you will need to update (or close) your plugin accordingly. I know a lot of free plugins will have some hard choices to make here.

For plugin users, if a plugin suddenly breaks on/around the 9th, please be generous and kind to the developers. They really got blindsided by this, and it’s a lot to sort out in a short amount of time.

#api, #twitter