Shaun Mccran

My digital playground

04
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2010

Twitters OAuth changes break HTC Peeps login

I've got a HTC Desire Android handset and I use the Twitter Application that ships with it, Peep. Recently it stopped logging in for me, after a quick search around online it looks like Twitter have finally made their OAuth login authentication mandatory for third party applications.

This is a good thing in itself, but it does raise the question of when a platform changes from being just 'open' to being so wide spread that it is considered as a public API. I'm not in a position to comment on why Peep wasn't updated to work with OAuth before it was released, but it does make you question who is responsible for maintaining the service levels of public API's.

If Twitter have published and promoted their API, surely it is their best interests to maintain its functionality, and ensure some level of backwards compatibility? This is a tricky point to argue, as on one hand it is very good that they are maturing their platform with new features and security, but on the other hand they do risk alienating the community they rely on by introducing new features that require third party application changes. By this I mean changes that require an update, and are not backwards compatible, rather than just not updating and missing out on any new functionality.

This is especially prominent in this instance as it affects the Twitter Application that actually ships with HTC Android handsets, so it is guaranteed to be quite widespread.

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Comments
Brian Swartzfager's Gravatar I agree with you that changing the client-facing part of the API is something to be avoided if at all possible, but sometimes it has to happen, and when it does the API provider needs to make a serious effort to communicate the upcoming change to the consumers of the API.

And in Twitter's defense, I think they did warn all of the Twitter client-makers (TweetDeck, Seesmic, etc.) that this change was coming months in advance, and hence very few clients stopped working when OAuth became mandatory. Why HTC failed to adjust the Peeps app is beyond me and is a question being asked in certain areas of the Android community.
# Posted By Brian Swartzfager | 05/09/10 22:11
Shaun McCran's Gravatar I think you hit the nail head on there, it seems to be an issue with HTC's response in updating Peep, they just seemed to have missed the deadline. (Its not like Twitter kept this change a secret)

Its all working again now, which is a little strange, as I have not updated my Peep App. Maybe the authentication is handled in a proxy somewhere server side, rather than within the app itself.
# Posted By Shaun McCran | 06/09/10 10:43
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