Image Credits: screenshot via Brent Simmons on Mastodon (opens in a new window) A third option directs customers who do want a pro-rated refund to do nothing - the refund will be automated through Apple, which is the usual course of action. A second option reads “I am happy with what I got out of Tweetbot and do not need a refund,” and provides a big, blue “I Don’t Need a Refund” button to click. The top option allows paying customers to click a button to transfer their subscription to the company’s new app, Ivory. In Tweetbot, for example, there are a handful of options to choose from. And now both apps feature similar wording around the requests they put to their subscribers. And in the case of annual subscribers who paid upfront for a year’s service, they would soon have to issue out-of-pocket refunds.īoth apps - Tapbots’ Tweetbot and The Iconfactory’s Twitterrific - rolled out app updates on Monday, according to their App Store pages. That means when Twitter pulled the plug, the companies were left in the unfortunate position of having their expected income almost immediately halted. Like most subscription apps, they also monetized by way of monthly and annual subscriptions on the App Store. Though the apps’ respective user bases were small compared to Twitter’s official app, they were large enough to help sustain the indie developers’ businesses. Plus, they supported some of Twitter’s most devoted users. Twitter, it had seemed, begrudgingly acknowledged the apps’ long history of contributing positively to the ecosystem.
TWEETBOT FOR TWITTER ZIP CRACKED
While Twitter may have never fully embraced the idea that there were apps offering alternative experiences, it ultimately decided to leave these particular third-party apps alone, even as it cracked down on other API usages.
Twitter officially bans third-party clients after cutting off prominent devs (Perhaps it was that time, 12 years ago, when the company told developers to stop trying to compete by building clients? Who knows!) Whatever “long-standing” rules Twitter was referring to still remains unclear. After initially ignoring the complaints, the company later tweeted that it was only “enforcing its long-standing API rules.” But those rules weren’t documented in its developer terms until after the API access had been yanked. Twitter didn’t communicate ahead of its API changes, and it didn’t even admit to what it had done as the user and developer backlash grew. The third-party Twitter clients, however, had no warning. This would allow the businesses dependent on the API functionality to communicate with their customers about the change and prepare to take the next steps. In most other scenarios, a company’s decision to put an end to API access, as Twitter did, would have been telegraphed well in advance. It’s an unprecedented situation, to say the least, and one most subscription-based iOS apps wouldn’t ever have to face.
The options allow subscribers who are sympathetic to these indie developers’ plight to offer support by not asking for their money back. And, in the case of Tapbots’ Tweetbot app, users can opt to transfer their subscription to the company’s newest app - its Mastodon client Ivory - instead. Now, in an unusual turn of events, two developers this week have updated their shuttered apps with new functionality: They’re asking their subscribers to decline to receive a refund by clicking a new “I don’t need a refund” button in their nonfunctional apps. Twitter last month officially banned third-party clients, putting a sudden end to popular apps, including Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and others.
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