Twitter won’t charge for API access for ‘critical purposes’ after all

Twitter has reversed course on its decision to shut off free access to its API, following widespread criticism from government and public service organisations.

The company has made numerous controversial decisions under Elon Musk’s leadership, but reducing users’ access to critical information was seen as dangerous and self-harming to the platform’s usefulness.

However, Twitter says it will now allow verified government and publicly-owned services to use the API...

3 May 2023 | API

OpenAI threatens GPT4Free project with lawsuit 

OpenAI has reportedly sent a letter to a European computer science student who runs the GPT4Free project on GitHub, demanding that he takes the project down within five days or face a lawsuit.

GPT4Free provides free access to the GPT4 and GPT3.5 models by funnelling the queries through sites like You.com, Quora, and CoCalc, and giving back the answers.

All of the sites GPT4Free uses pay OpenAI fees to use its large language models, and the scripts mean that those sites...

2 May 2023 | API

Reddit to charge for API access over AI training concerns

Social news aggregation and discussion website Reddit will begin charging companies for access to its API.

Reddit says it’s making the decision over concerns about companies using the API to train large language models (LLMs).

The company says that its pricing will be divided into tiers to support companies of different sizes, with different usage limits and broader usage rights offered at each tier. However, the exact pricing details have not yet been...

19 April 2023 | API

SwaggerHub Explore lets developers instantly analyse RESTful APIs and Apache Kafka services

SmartBear, a provider of software development and visibility tools, is giving developers instant access to RESTful and Apache Kafka endpoints with the new SwaggerHub Explore.

The free API exploration tool has an easy-to-use interface and accelerates the development lifecycle, allowing developers to easily visualise API data in a single place and quickly evaluate functionality before investing valuable time in API integration. This addresses a major developer challenge and speeds...

8 March 2023 | API

Microsoft inflates Bing Search API fees

Microsoft is introducing massive price hikes for developers using the Bing Search API.

“We periodically assess the value and pricing of our services to meet market demands and align the pricing of our products and services with customer consumption trends and preferences,” wrote Microsoft.

“The new pricing model reflects more accurately the technology investments Bing continues to make to improve Search.”

Dependent on your needs, some of the prices have...

20 February 2023 | API

iOS 16.4 supports web app notifications

Users will be able to receive push notifications from web apps they’ve added to their homescreens starting with iOS 16.4.

iOS users have been able to add shortcuts for their favourite web apps to their homescreens since 2008. Over the years, Apple has unlocked further capabilities for web apps on iOS—but push notification support has remained a major omission.

As of iOS 16.4, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) take a big step closer to being able to offer a native app...

17 February 2023 | API

Twitter pushes API changes back further as concerns mount

Twitter will now introduce its API changes over a week later than planned while concerns over the impact continue to grow.

Elon Musk’s social network first announced on 2 February 2023 that it was ending free access to its API (both v2 and v1.1) a week later on February 9th.

Twitter later pushed back the API changes to February 13th. Now, the company says it will take a bit longer again:

https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1625234161010343941

Despite...

14 February 2023 | API

Twitter announces charges for third-party developers

Less than a month after unceremoniously blocking third-party apps, Twitter has announced new charges for developers using its API.

In a tweet, Twitter announced that it will end free access to its API (both v2 and v1.1) on 9 February 2023.

The company says a paid basic tier will be available to replace the free access. More specific details are due to be announced next week.

https://twitter.com/TwitterDev/status/1621026986784337922

It’s not the best time...

2 February 2023 | API

Twitter’s relationship with developers has fallen apart

The already strained relationship between Twitter and developers has now completely fallen apart.

Over the years, Twitter has made a series of decisions that damaged its relationship with developers.

In 2012, Twitter limited the number of active tokens an app can have—essentially putting a cap on how successful a third-party app can become. A number of apps kicked the bucket after that decision.

Increasingly strict rate limits on things such as retweets and...

16 January 2023 | API

Google makes it easier for developers to offer eco-routing

Google is making it easier for developers to offer eco-routing in their apps following announcements from its annual Search On event.

Current users of the Google Maps app may have seen that the service launched “eco-friendly” routes earlier this year, enabling the environmentally conscious to minimise their carbon footprints.

Later this year, Google says that it will launch a preview of the feature to developers. The feature will enable developers to offer...

29 September 2022 | API