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IFTTT disables Twitter Triggers in response to Twitter's new third-party app policies

IFTTT disables Twitter Triggers in response to Twitter's new third-party app policies

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In response to recent changes in Twitter's increasingly stringent third-party app policies, web service IFTTT is removing all Twitter "triggers," which let set up "recipes" to automatically push favorited tweets to Evernote, or crosspost tweets to Google+. In an email to users today, IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets specifically called out Twitter's new policy of "disallow uploading Twitter content to a cloud-based service" (Section 4A under heading I) that provoked a change. Additionally, IFTTT's quite useful ability to archive your tweets in a plain text file does not abide by Twitter's revised Developer Display Requirements, which mandate that tweets always look like tweets.

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In response to recent changes in Twitter's increasingly stringent third-party app policies, web service IFTTT is removing all Twitter "triggers," which let you set up "recipes" to automatically push favorited tweets to Evernote, or crosspost tweets to Google+. In an email to users today, IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets specifically called out Twitter's new policy to "disallow uploading Twitter content to a cloud-based service" (Section 4A under heading I) that provoked a change. Additionally, IFTTT's quite useful ability to archive your tweets in a plain text file does not abide by Twitter's revised Developer Display Requirements, which mandate that tweets always look like tweets.

Not all Twitter features inside IFTTT will disappear, however. Only "triggers" that begin with Twitter content are being removed. For example, you'll still be able to set IFTTT to automatically thank your new followers using tweets, but you won't be able to archive all the times people tweet at you. The site's Twitter triggers will be removed on September 27th.

Here's the full text of the email users received from Tibbets:

In recent weeks, Twitter announced policy changes* that will affect how applications and users like yourself can interact with Twitter's data. As a result of these changes, on September 27th we will be removing all Twitter Triggers, disabling your ability to push tweets to places like email, Evernote and Facebook. All Personal and Shared Recipes using a Twitter Trigger will also be removed. Recipes using Twitter Actions and your ability to post new tweets via IFTTT will continue to work just fine.

At IFTTT, first and foremost, we want to empower anyone to create connections between literally anything. We've still got a long way to go, and to get there we need to make sure that the types of connections that IFTTT enables are aligned with how the original creators want their tools and services to be used.

We at IFTTT are big Twitter fans and, like yourself, we've gotten a lot of value out of the Recipes that use Twitter Triggers. We're sad to see them go, but remain excited to build features that work within Twitter's new policy. Thank you for your support and for understanding these upcoming changes.

*These Twitter policy changes specifically disallow uploading Twitter Content to a "cloud based service" (Section 4A) and include stricter enforcement of the Developer Display Requirements.