Jetpack’s Auto-Share Feature for Twitter No Longer Functional
Jetpack has announced that the auto-share feature for Twitter on its social plugin will no longer be operational. This decision comes after last-minute changes by Twitter and a failure to reach an agreement.
The Jetpack Announcement Stated:
"Twitter decided, on short notice, to dramatically change the terms and pricing of the Twitter API.
We have attempted to work with Twitter in good faith to negotiate new terms, but we have not been able to reach an agreement.
As a result, the Twitter connection on Jetpack Social will cease to work, and your blog posts will no longer be auto-shared to Twitter."
Twitter now offers limited free access to its API for individuals with one app ID. Additionally, a "Basic" version costs $100/month for two app IDs, with undisclosed pricing for the Enterprise level. These prices are seen as expensive and counterproductive, especially for a site like Twitter that is losing users to other social media platforms like Mastodon.
Twitter’s new API access rates do not seem economically beneficial for Twitter, which should be encouraging user engagement, nor for services like Jetpack that can bring thousands of daily users. Jetpack recommends manually sharing tweets by copying the URL and pasting it into Tweets.
Other Twitter Apps Affected by API Changes
Unannounced changes to Twitter’s API starting in January 2023 were the first signs of trouble. Companies like Twitterrific and Tweetbot have announced their shutdowns because their users can no longer connect via the Twitter API.
Twitterrific Quits Twitter
In a blog post announcing their shutdown, the developers of Twitterrific asked their users not to request refunds, stating that it would be devastating for a small company.
The developers of Twitterrific wrote:
"We are sorry to say that the app’s sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer.
… if you were a subscriber to Twitterrific for iOS, we would ask you to please consider not requesting a refund from Apple. The loss of ongoing, recurring revenue from Twitterrific is already going to hurt our business significantly, and any refunds will come directly out of our pockets – not Twitter’s and not Apple’s.
To put it simply, thousands of refunds would be devastating to a small company like ours."
Tweetbot Quits Twitter
Tapbot, the makers of Tweetbot, were also affected and had to shut down their service.
The makers of Tweetbot wrote:
"On January 12th, 2023, without warning, Elon Musk ordered his employees at Twitter to suspend access to 3rd party clients, which instantly locked out hundreds of thousands of users from accessing Twitter from their favorite clients."
Buffer’s Agreement with Twitter
Interestingly, social sharing services like Hootsuite and Buffer have reached agreements with Twitter and continue to provide tweet scheduling functions. Buffer announced that the changes to Twitter’s API would not affect their users, stating that everything would continue working as before.
Buffer wrote:
"We have a longstanding, enterprise relationship with Twitter built over the last 12 years and have worked directly with their team on the path forward."
They also tweeted an announcement:
"If you use Buffer for your Twitter account, we want you to know that Buffer users are not impacted by any of Twitter’s recent API changes. Your Buffer account and Twitter connections will continue working as usual for free and paid plans."
Jetpack Social
Jetpack is a comprehensive plugin offering security, performance, and marketing functionalities in both premium and free versions. The plugin’s various components can be used on a modular basis, allowing users to select needed functions. Jetpack Social, a component of this plugin, provides social media functionalities for WordPress sites. The plugin includes an auto-share feature for automatic social media article sharing and scheduling across popular social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tumblr.
However, Twitter will no longer be available for auto-sharing. Jetpack has announced plans to roll out social sharing features for Instagram and Mastodon. Mastodon, an alternative to Twitter, has seen significant growth since changes at Twitter under Elon Musk, including staff cuts and alienating advertisers. Instagram remains a highly popular platform for photo and video sharing. It will be interesting to see how Jetpack Social integrates text-based article posts with an image and video-centric platform like Instagram.
Read Jetpack’s Announcement:
The End of Twitter Auto-Sharing
Featured image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
