New language in Twitter’s official agreement with developers forbids non-employees to « use or access Licensed Materials.’
Twitter quietly made a major change to its policy regarding third-party developers and apps. Third-party apps have been a significant component of Twitter’s success virtually since its founding. For example, Twitterific, an iOS app established before Twitter had an app of its own the Apple ecosystem, likely coined the word « tweet » (via Engadget). That’s how deeply embedded they are in Twitter’s overall service.
Twitter’s willingness to collaborate with third-party developers appears to be at an end, however. New language in its official agreement with developers forbids non-employees to « use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications » (via Twitter). Per the same source at Engadget, that is the only significant change in the text of Twitter’s most recent development agreement.
