Twitter has always had a very complicated relationship with developers, and now, it could get even worse, according to Mashable. On Wednesday, the company announced that it is selling its developer platform Fabric to Google. This way it is offloading the suite of developer tools that it once claimed to be the “future of mobile software.”
Twitter and developers: a love/hate relationship
At Twitter’s developer conference when Jack Dorsey made one of his first public appearances nearly a year ago after he was reappointed as Twitter’s top exec, he promised to improve Twitter’s relations with developers.
“Somewhere along the line, our relationship with developers got a little bit complicated, a little bit confusing, a little bit unpredictable. We want to come to you today first and foremost to apologize for our confusion. We want to reset our relationship and we want to make sure that we are learning, we are listening and that we are rebooting,” Dorsey said at that time.
However, selling Fabric doesn’t mean that Twitter is entirely giving up on developers. It retains the maintenance of other developer products such as Twitter Kit, the monetization platform MoPub and supports meet-ups, notes Mashable. Despite that, it cannot be denied that by selling off what was once its flagship developer offering, it has further complicated its relationship with developers.
Ryan Bell, head of studio at VRScout, said, “I didn’t know anything about this which is strange because I am a Twitter developer community manager.”
Bell also runs a Los Angeles-based Twitter community group.
Not much is going to change this time
Twitter embraced developers early on in its history. Despite that, the company has not been able to maintain a cordial relationship with them. It all started when the company began to impose restrictions on how developers used its API in their apps.
In its previous moves, Twitter clamped down on restrictions to its API, but this time it will be different, notes Mashable. Once sold to Google, all the daily responsibility and monetary resources will be shifted to Alphabet. There won’t be any need for Fabric customers to make any changes other than read the new terms of use.
Saying “bye” to the “buy” button
Twitter has been making efforts to phase out the “buy” button since May and now is finally killing off the button. Due to this, the company is halting all its e-commerce partnerships and is also shutting down its sales channel on February 1.
There is no official announcement regarding the change, e-commerce platform Shopify, which offered the Twitter sales channel, noted in the help section of its website that the initiative is being deactivated.
