Twitter Has Retired API v1

Today, Twitter finally retired version 1 of its Application Programming Interface, replacing it with version 1.1.

A number of Twitter apps will become obsolete due to the update, including a few that are Twitter owned, such as TweetDeck.

Most Twitter app developers have already moved onto version 1.1 of the API, which was released in September last year. However, a number of smaller apps have been unable to make the transition due to usage restrictions imposed on them.

A small set of clients, who were “replicating the core Twitter experience” (according to a post on the Twitter Developers blog), were limited to 100,000 user tokens, making monetization almost impossible.

Twitter actually originally announced that version 1 would be shut down in May, but they extended by just over a month to ensure that version 1.1 was ready.

The update to version 1.1 is unlikely to affect any major Twitter apps.

Does this update affect you?

Retwact May Solve Twitter's Misinformation Problem

Even worse than the pornbots and trolls, one of Twitter's enduring drawbacks is that there's no reliable way to issue corrections with the service. The flaw drew a truckload of attention in the wake of the Boston bombings as self-appointed detectives — fueled by Reddit — made all kinds of invalid allegations on social media. But the tragedy involving the Tsarnaev brothers is simply the most extreme case of what's a very ordinary problem. Virtually all reporting has become an iterative process, subject to revisions in real time as new knowledge becomes available.

Some journalists have called for Twitter to build a corrections function involving the same code it uses for retweets and favorites. So far, Twitter has given no indication that it plans to do so, which has led one independent developer to build his own solution. And until something more polished comes along, it's not a bad option.

The tool is called Retweet Retract — or Retwact, for short. Built as a side project by Stonly Baptiste, a software developer at the Pennsylvania-based company independenceIT, Retwact tries to contain the damage (and shame) that comes along with spreading information that later turns out to be untrue.
Here's how it works. Once you've given it permission to look at your account, the app culls your five most recent tweets that have garnered retweets.

Click on one of them, and a little green radio button fills in. Down below, you can tap out a hand-written apology or send the correction as-is. When you publish the notice, it goes from your account to all your followers. Meanwhile, Retwact's own Twitter account (@Retwact) reaches out with an @-mention to the first 100 people who retweeted your (incorrect) tweet.

The link above takes you to a side-by-side comparison showing both the older, incorrect tweet as well as the newer, corrected one.

Baptiste told me he hacked the tool together in a "sleepless" 48-hour session, using resources he'd never worked with before such as OAuth and the Twitter API. That was after he'd posted the idea to the social news aggregator Hacker News, where it got promoted to the front page within an hour and received upwards of 1,500 requests for Retwact to be built. (Twitter, are you listening?)

Retwact isn't perfect. If you tweet often, you can only use the service to correct something you tweeted minutes rather than hours ago. And Retwact can't detect manual retweets of misinformation — just the ones produced when you click Twitter's own retweet button.

Baptiste said he plans to keep working. He's considering adding a feature that will delete the original, misinformed tweet altogether while still preserving the text on the correction page. That means there'll still be a record of the mistake, but other users will no longer be able to spread it around.

Baptiste promises to improve the app until "A) People stop using it, or B) Twitter (or someone else) offers me a lot of money for it."

Mashable composite, images courtesy of Flickr, NASA and Twitter

Twitter Music App is Launching Friday

Get ready to rock. Twitter is about to launch its long-rumored standalone music app Friday, according to a report.

The app's existence was rapidly becoming one of the worst-kept secrets in social media, especially after American Idol host Ryan Seacrest randomly tweeted about its existence earlier Thursday.
As soon as Seacrest did that, the social music startup We Are Hunted tweeted back at him — and then immediately announced it had been acquired by Twitter. (Another poorly kept secret, this acquisition likely occurred last year and was revealed by CNET last month.)

When we asked Twitter whether the app existed, they pointed us — rather meaningfully — to the We Are Hunted announcement. Now AllThingsD is reporting that the music app will launch Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

We Are Hunted focused on the top trending music on social media, and the Twitter Music app will likely do the same — plus suggest what other tunes you might like based on what you've listened to, and allow you to buy tracks via iTunes.

A streaming-only service, it will feature Soundcloud clips you can listen to from within the app and music videos from Vevo, according to AllThingsD. CNET previous reported that the app would be divided into four sections, including "#NowPlaying", and that a Twitter account would not be necessary to use it.
What we don't have a lot of details on is what platform the app is launching on. CNET's report said it would be iOS only; AllThingsD's sources don't specify.

Will this be one more app that Android users have to wait more months to experience? Would you download it? Let us know in the comments.

Mashable composite. Image courtesy iStockphoto, mstay

Twitter App Update Makes Finding Tweets Easier

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Twitter updated its iOS and Android apps Wednesday, as well as mobile.twitter.com, making it easier to find information.

Previously broken up by type, now all of the content from the Discover tab appears as a single stream in both the iPhone and Android apps, so you can see tweets, activity, trends, and suggestions of accounts to follow as a single content stream, rather than having to scroll past one group of content to get to another. Activity and Trend information can be launched by tapping on tiles at the top of the Discover page, both of which display a snapshot of that information. For instance, the Activity tile shows four people you follow who have recent activity on the service, while the Trend tile shows a few of the current trends.

Search results are also now displayed in a single stream, surfacing the “most relevant mix of tweets, photos, and accounts all in one stream.” Twitter also added a search button in the iPhone app, allowing you to perform searches from anywhere in the app, a feature already available in the iPad and Android versions.
Clicking a link within a tweet now takes you directly to that website, rather than expanding the tweet and then taking you the website. Definitely a useful feature for people who use Twitter as a news feed and want the ability to get to content a little quicker.

While Twitter officially announced the update on its website, neither the Android or iOS apps appear to be live in the store just yet.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, arakonyunus

Everything You Need to Know About the New Twitter

Twitter rolled out on Tuesday a series of design updates aimed to add more personality to member pages. Photos have been brought to the forefront and room has been made for Facebook Timeline-like cover images.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo first unveiled the updates during morning news program The Today Show — an unlikely stage for a tech company that is continually introducing new features and designs. Since the announcement was coupled with a short segment about Twitter’s growth and success, it was likely part of an effort to introduce the platform to a greater audience not yet using the site.

“Today’s changes are all about bringing that personality forward. More media forward, more photos forward,” Costolo said on the show. “So it’s much easier to see these media experiences and flip through them.”

The company also announced new apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices.

Here’s a rundown of what you need to know about the news:

Behind the Header Photo

Member profile photos have been moved from the top left to a spot in the center of the page. Users can upload a long horizontal “header” image that resembles the cover photo concept currently used on Facebook and Google+. Existing profile pictures are embedded in the center of the header.

“The page itself has been reoriented to play up other visuals as well: Your avatar is no longer tucked in the corner, but will display front and center,” Twitter said in a statement. “The photo stream, too, has been moved up, and will now be accessible on the apps.”

How to Add a Header

First, visit your profile — the page that’s labeled “Me,” not your homepage — either on Twitter.com or via your mobile app. To add a header photo, visit Twitter.com/Settings/Design and select a photo from your existing library or port in a new one. To upload a header photo from a mobile app, visit to the “Me” tab, click the settings button (gear), tap “Edit profile” and then “Header.”

Note: After selecting a picture, you’ll need to scale it to size. The original image size can’t surpass 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of five megabytes) and anything less than 640 pixels won’t look great.

App Upgrades

The iPhone app looks similar to what we’ve seen in the past, particularly in regards to the news feed and navigation. The “Me” section has been optimized for a header photo, however.

Meanwhile, the iPad app received a whole new user interface. In addition to highlighting a header photo and giving uploaded photos a bigger display area, you no longer have to swipe to reveal the sidebar. It also gives greater prominence to media — images now appear full-screen and links show up within the tweets when expanded. The company called the iPad app more than just an upgrade.

“We’ve rebuilt the app from the ground up to make it fast, beautiful and easy to use,” Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter also noted that the news represents “our mobile-first strategy.”

User Reaction

Mashable conducted a poll after the news was announced to gauge user feedback, and 47% said they loved the emphasis on photos and the new header. About 27% said cover pictures are “so 2011,” while 25% said they were indifferent.