Thanks Twitter…NOT! IFTTT Forced to End Twitter Mashups

UPDATE (via TechCrunch): IFTTT Has Actually Been In Violation of Twitter’s API For Months, Today’s Move Unrelated To 1.1
One of my used web tools and a favorite to share with others is IFTTT (If This Then That).
IFTTT allows users (it’s a free resource) to create links (recipes in IFTTT language) using APIs from growing number of web-based services (Gmail, Evenote, Dropbox, etc.). I often describe IFTTT as mashups for dummies since no coding is involved. It’s a point and click operation that you can learn as you use.
For example, you can create a “recipe” to automatically send an RSS feed of news stories to read using Instapaper or send yourself a text message to be notified of a new email message from specific people. You get the idea.
Today, IFTTT alerted users that you will no longer be able to create connections/mashups with Twitter.
Here’s what IFTTT CEO, Linden Tibbets, had to say:

In recent weeks, Twitter has 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. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@ifttt.com.
* These Twitter policy changes specifically disallow uploading Twitter Content to a “cloud based service” (Section 4A https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms) and include stricter enforcement of the Developer Display Requirements (https://dev.twitter.com/terms/display-requirements).

Very disappointing for Twitter users. Sad to see them do this.
I’m going to let Twitter execs know how I feel.  If nothing else it will make me feel better to share a polite rant with Costolo and company.
If you’re a IFTTT user, we hope you do the same.

Filed under: Data Files, News, Patrons and Users