Twitter’s free API tier no longer available (see news coverage). This means the end of several interesting interfaces to Twitter.
IFTTT ("If This Then That") is one such interesting API interface. I use it to run the Twitter account @rahulisreading. It tweets the title and link to every article I add to my Instapaper read later list. I’ve added nearly a thousand articles to the account, all automated.
It’s fun for me to run, for others to follow (just a couple dozen of them), and an all-round great example of how Twitter made novel online relationships possible.
Fundamentally, this is how simple the IFTTT ‘recipe’ was:
But IFTTT needs to access Twitter’s API to make it work. After the removal of Twitter’s free tier, there’s no guarantee IFTTT will make Twitter integration a paid-only feature, but it does seem likely. If that’s so, I’m likely going to sunset @rahulisreading the Twitter account – but move the articles feed elsewhere.
My two options are RSS and an email digest. The former’s easier to implement, the latter’s more easy to follow.
Either way, it goes to show yet again that for longevity, you need community-owned protocols and self-hosted platforms.
Twitter is neither.