Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook has pretty much flat out denied that they are even working/considering a Windows 8 app, Twitter has at least confirmed that one is in progress that should be out in a few months. The good news is that we have alternatives for Facebook, and for Twitter too– or do we? For those looking for a great 3rd party alternative for Twitter, one of the top apps has been Tweetro, but continued download and demand has resulted in that app breaking. So what went wrong? Did the developers behind it (LazyWorm apps) make a junk app that couldn’t hold the stress of tons of users? No, Twitter’s own API restrictions is what happened. Apparently Twitter enforces a 100k user cap for third party apps like Tweetro. Up until now, it was believed that this policy was new and not yet fully in affect until early-to-mid 2013, but apparently that isn’t the case. Twitter has aggressively went after third party apps with limitations to users, and major restrictions when it comes to customized functions and hacks as well. So why is Twitter taking this route? It’s all about the Benjamins. They are in the business to make money, and one of the big sources is ad revenue. Alot of the third party apps accessed Twitter in a way that it skipped many of these in-tweet ads and other ways the company makes its money. Pretty cut and dry. While it is Twitter’s company and therefore they can really do what they want, it is frustrating for Windows 8 users in particular for one reason— we have few alternatives. Until an official app comes out, all we can do is bounce around from 3rd party to 3rd party app as they break until something official surfaces. What can Tweetro do about the situation? Possibly a few things. One is (maybe) work out some kind of deal with Twitter, at least until an official app arrives. Second is to start charging for the app. By charging for the application, they would limit their user base, simply because many of us aren’t willing to pay good money just to tweet. This isn’t the best solution, but it would hopefully keep them within their cap limit. Did you use Tweetro for your Windows 8 twitter news? If so, what do you plan on using going forward– at least until the app is either fixed or an official Twitter app arrives? [ source ]]]>
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Tweetro still works for me
hmm? That’s strange. I couldn’t get it to start. Maybe some are still getting lucky? I don’t know for sure. 🙂
Apparently old users aren’t affected. Only the new signups can’t use them. Use Rowi or MetroTwit then
Funny, just a few minutes ago I got tired of MetroTwit’s bugs and decided to give Tweetro another try, even though I don’t like it’s UI, only to discover it was broken. This is a perfect opportunity for Twitter to remake TweetDeck the way it used to be before the bought it.