Twitter finally reveals more details about its new APIs

After several days of heated debate about the future of their API, Twitter seems to have found a course for his strategy. Social network delay the restriction of free access to it that, in principle, it was supposed to come into force today, and provided more details on what the characteristics of the new free version will be. A solution that is still not perfect but aims to be less chaotic than the one Elon Musk announced earlier this month.

This way, all those who are currently using the Twitter API will be able to continue using it. until next Monday, February 13. Although from this date two options will be available, one paid in exchange for $100 per month, and the other is free, which will be available for certain cases and will have significant restrictions.

The announcement that was made via Twitter Dev, don’t get too specific, but at least it shows a slightly more streamlined picture. As for the paid option, Twitter indicates that it will provide “low API usage” and access to the advertising API in exchange for the aforementioned monthly fee.

While the new free version will limit the creation of tweets to a maximum of 1500 per month for a single authenticated user token. The latter also includes a login with social network credentials. On Twitter, they assure that the offer of this tool is “extremely important” for their ecosystem, and this mention is certainly a response to the large amount of negative feedback they received after Elon Musk’s initial announcement.

Twitter is making important changes to how its API is used

As we said at the beginning, the future of the Twitter API is a topic that has generated a lot of heated debate on the web. Let’s not forget that the first – and unexpected – victims were third-party clients, such as tweetbot. These apps stopped working overnight and raised suspicions that something strange was about to happen.

But widespread dissatisfaction arose when Twitter announced that it would cut off access to anyone using versions 1.1 and 2 of the API. The situation that extended the blockade to endless tools and services information bots or even plugins to automatically post content to a social network, just to name a few.

Seeing the situation getting out of control, Elon Musk stepped back and announced that the free and lite version would be offered to “bots that produce free and quality content.” Although it was not clear at the time whether this was a realistic possibility or hasty engagement so that the situation does not explode in his hands.

There are more doubts than there are certainties

That the new free Twitter API allows up to 1,500 tweets per month means that the number of accounts using it will be limited to around 50 per day. That is, about every half hour. How useful this will be depends on each individual case. Some automated profiles post a lot more to be sure.

On the other hand, the company announced that from February 13 will stop providing access to your Premium API. Those using this version will have the opportunity to apply to upgrade to the commercial version as indicated.

“This is a new chapter for the Twitter API to improve quality, reduce spam and create a thriving ecosystem. We appreciate your patience as we roll out these changes and we can’t wait to see what you create next!” Dev wrote on Twitter.

While Twitter now has a more streamlined approach to its API, the changes still raise more questions than certainties. Of course, for the social network to announce the cancellation of free access to it, and then continue to offer a free but limited version, does not seem to be consistent with what is considered an “extremely important” tool. It remains to be seen what happens next week.