Today we’re rolling out an update for Twitterrific on iOS and macOS that addresses upcoming changes with how apps interact with Twitter. Unfortunately, these changes hinder the ability of third-party apps like Twitterrific to do push notifications and live-stream events.
We had hoped there would be cost-effective ways to work around these limitations, but since that’s looking increasingly unlikely, today we’re here to explain exactly what these changes mean to Twitterrific users like yourself.
Push Pulled
If you purchased the Push Notifications Advanced Features on iOS at any point in the past, you will continue to receive notifications until Twitter deactivates their API. Sometime after August 16th, 2018, Twitterrific won’t be able to receive and display notifications natively.
When this happens, you won’t be notified when someone likes one of your tweets, quotes you, replies to you, retweets, sends a direct message, or follows you. Since these notifications also power the Today view and Twitterrific’s Apple Watch app, we will be retiring both.
Given that notifications are going away, today’s iOS update removes the Push Notification in-app purchase for new users. There is now a single “Enhanced” in-app purchase item including ad removal and tweet translation for $2.99 USD. The Tip Jar remains for those who wish to contribute to Twitterrific’s long-term development.
Unrealtime
Twitter will also be removing the live-streaming service for third-party apps. This means that after the API is shut down, tweets and direct messages will be delayed by a minute or two, instead of displaying in real time.
Starting with today’s update, Twitterrific will still attempt to live stream tweets but will fall back to automatically refreshing your timelines every 2 minutes if it’s unable to connect. Automatic refreshing, unlike streaming, will work even if you are connected via a cellular network.
In most use cases you probably won’t notice the difference, except in cases like live events or with popular searches that update frequently. On the plus side, this change means that Lists can finally auto-refresh themselves like other timelines – something that had been sorely missing for a long time.
I Want My Ac-tiv-ity!
While there is little we can do to work around the removal of live streaming, it will still be possible to continue to receive push notifications for tweets. How? Simply activate all the notification types you want to receive in the official Twitter client. Then keep using Twitterrific to browse your timeline, tweet, respond to direct messages, read threads, like tweets, and much more.
Using notifications via the official app also means you can continue to receive them on your wrist via Apple Watch. Tweet text won’t be color-coded as it was in Twitterrific, but you’ll still be able to keep yourself apprised of the latest events.
The Bottom Line
We sincerely wish Twitter would have offered third party developers a better way forward for our customers. Apps like Twitterrific helped build Twitter’s brand and expand its user base. We even contributed to its lexicon and feature sets (Tweet tweet!) Twitter’s priorities over the last several years, however, have shifted away from end users and toward brands and big companies. We have no choice but to adapt as best we can.
As of this writing, both push notifications and live streaming of tweets will continue to function at least into August, 2018. Installing today’s update means you’ll lose Twitterrific’s Watch app, but as long as you’ve purchased them in the past, the Today view and push notifications will continue to work until the cut off. New customers will not be able to unlock these features going forward as we did not feel it was fair to continue charging for a service that we know is ending.
Thank you so much for your loyalty and support over the years! All of us at The Iconfactory appreciate it more than we can say.
