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Tweetbot for Mac alpha launches despite stricter API

Tapbots releases the Tweetbot for Mac alpha, but will this tempt the Twitter gods who have been cracking down on API access for mobile apps?

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
2 min read
Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET

Tapbots rolled out an alpha version of its Twitter third-party app Tweetbot for Macs today, which may put the app in Twitter's crosshairs considering the company's recent decision to be stricter about how its APIs are used.

Third-party developers use a site's API, or application programming interface, to create apps that utilize the site's feeds.

The new app has some core features from Tweetbot's iOS versions, but it's still a work in progress. Features like multiple windows is on its way, Tapbot's Mark Jardine wrote in a blog post about the new app. Additionally, it should work fairly well on Macbook Pro with "Retina" screens.

Jardine also expects users to come in contact with pixelated images and bugs.

"Lots of them," he writes of the bugs. "Don't say we didn't warn you."

Tweetbot's mobile apps have been popular, with fans opting for them over Twitter's own apps. Twitter just unveiled its new mobile apps for iOS and Android yesterday. (Twitter declined to comment about the new Tweetbot app.)

Only time will tell how Tweetbot's app fairs against Twitter's own Mac app, which had its last update a year ago.

But even with news of Twitter's API oncoming crackdown, Tweetbot doesn't seem rushed to make a profit while it still can.

The app will remain a free testing app until the company decides otherwise, Jardine wrote.

"We would like to earn money for our hard work as soon as possible, but we won't sell anything short of a quality product," he wrote. CNET contacted Tapbots for comment and we will update this report when we get more information.

Get the app here.

(Via The Verge)