In 2013, Twitter introduced a new policy that was designed to prevent third-party Twitter clients from gaining too much popularity. The design to the Twitter API basically capped the number of API “tokens” a third-party developer have. Each token is tied to a user, so the effect is that if a third-party Twitter client gets too popular, Twitter will stop allowing new users of that app into the service.
Over the weekend, it appears that Tapbot’s third-party Twitter app, Tweetbot for Mac, finally ran up against its token limit… and as of right now, has been pulled from the Mac App Store.
After issues emerged on Saturday morning that prevented new users from logging into the service, Tweetbot’s developers tweeted:
We are aware of Tweetbot for Mac authentication issues. We have contacted Twitter and are waiting for a response. Thanks for your patience.
— Tweetbot by Tapbots (@tweetbot) January 25, 2015
In addition, Tapbot founder Paul Haddad tweeted this glum message on Saturday:
Well I was having a pretty good week.
— Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul) January 25, 2015
It’s not 100% certain that Tweetbot for Mac has reached its token limit, with some Tapbot developers saying on Twitter that they think they are still under their token limit. It could just possibly be a glitch. It’s also not entirely clear whether or not Tapbots pulled Tweetbot for Mac from the App Store themselves, or if it was pulled by Apple after receiving a number of bug reports related to the token authentication errors.
As it stands right now, though, Tweetbot for Mac isn’t on the Mac App Store, and it’s not certain when it will come back. Fingers crossed that this issue is resolved soon.