Tapbots Says Don’t Freak Out, Twitter’s New Rules Won’t Really Affect Tweetbot

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Screen Shot 2012-08-17 at 2.45.38 PM

The developers at Tapbots, makers of popular third-party Twitter client Tweetbot, have reassured everyone that their Twitter app isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Twitter announced a new set of rules for developers yesterday that could be interpreted as the beginning of the end for third-party Twitter clients like Tweetbot, but Tapbots is confident that their app’s future is secure.

Twitter wants developers to focus on making apps that enhance Twitter’s own apps and web experience. Very little room is being left for traditional clients like Tweetbot. The good news is that the clients that already boast huge user bases shouldn’t be in danger of disappearing.

Tapbots developer Paul Haddad:

There’s been a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt generated by Twitter’s latest announcement. I wanted to let everyone know that the world isn’t ending, Tweetbot for Mac is coming out soon, Tweetbot for iOS isn’t going anywhere.

Haddad goes though some of Twitter’s new changes and how they will affect Tweetbot. As part of the new rules, Twitter has limited how many users an app like Tweetbot can have before it has to get in contact with Twitter directly. “I can’t say that I’m thrilled with the idea of caps on the number of users, I feel that part of what makes the Twitter ecosystem interesting is the wide ranging apps available to it,” writes Haddad. “I think we and others fill an important niche in that system not served by the current Twitter apps and would’ve much preferred to see some some other approach.”

Tweetbot has more than 100,000 users, so it will be a “few years” until the app’s user base doubles and Twitter has it get involved. And even when that happens, all existing users will be safe. If you have Tweetbot on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, you count as one user.

Tweetbot for Mac was released as a public alpha on July 11th, 2012, and an official beta will be “coming soon,” according to Tapbots.

Source: Tapbots Blog

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