Tweetbot Mac Alpha Pulled Over Twitter Limits

Tweetbot for MacTapbots announced on Monday that it has pulled the Tweetbot for Mac alpha version the company had been offering for users to test. The company said that new rules being enforced by Twitter that limit the number of user tokens that any one application can use to access the Twitter API were behind the move.

“Twitter’s latest API Changes means now we have a large but finite limit on the number of user tokens we can get for Tweetbot for Mac,” Tapbots said in a blog post. “We’ve been working with Twitter over the last few days to try to work around this limit for the duration of the beta but have been unable to come up with a solution that was acceptable to them. Because of this we’ve decided its best for us to pull the alpha.”

Twitter announced earlier in August changes to the rules that 3rd party developers have to obey to access the Twitter API. The company said it was part of an effort to gain greater control over the way those APIs are used.

According to Twitter’s announcement, “To prevent malicious use of the Twitter API and gain an understanding of what types of applications are accessing the API in order to evolve it to meet the needs of developers, it’s important to have visibility into the activity on the Twitter API and the applications using the platform.”

To that end, Twitter has decided that each application will be limited to 100,000 user tokens, with each account needing such a token for apps like Tweetbot, Tweetdeck, Twittelator, and others to access the Twitter APIs. What’s causing a problem is that these tokens don’t expire until you, the user, chooses to “Revoke Access” for each app under the “Applications” section of your Twitter settings on the Twitter website.

Which no one ever does. Why would you?

Which brings us back to Tapbots. The company doesn’t want its 100,000 user tokens taken up with alpha users who are just kicking the tires. The company said it tried to work with Twitter to get an extension, but was unable to secure such an extension.

The company did say, however, that Tweetbot for Mac will be come to market. It just won’t be available while it’s still in alpha form.

Tweetbot for iPhone and iPad remain unaffected and are available for download now.