Twitterrific has shut down, following Twitter's ban of third-party clients

This time, it's officially over for Twitter's third-party clients, both the big names and lesser-known applications. The social network says it's “enforcing its long-standing API rules that may result in some apps not working”.

For years, Twitter has allowed its users to view tweets on third-party applications. This obviously has big advantages for the user, since they don't have to use the little blue bird's user interface to get information on the platform. And over the years, some of these third-party applications for Twitter have gained notoriety, and have even helped define the shape of the Twitter experience. For example, Twitterrific was the first Twitter app to use a blue bird as its mascot, which prompted Twitter themselves to later adopt a blue bird logo of their own. Tweetie, another (now discontinued) Twitter client, was the first mobile app to use the pull-to-refresh gesture.

But, since Thursday night, Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Echofon for Twitter and other popular third-party applications for Twitter are no longer working. The agreement that developers must sign in order to operate the social network's API contains a new paragraph in the section on usage restrictions, and it specifically prohibits to “create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the [official] Twitter Applications”.

Just before Twitter's public confirmation, the publisher The Iconfactory announced the end of Twitterific in a blog post. The app has been removed from both the iOS and macOS App Stores, and current subscriptions will be cancelled by Apple. A pretty sad story for users and developers altogether…