Twitter plans to make life difficult for developers

Twitter is introducing stricter guidelines for its application programming interface, or API, the company announced on its blog Thursday.

Here’s a breakdown of the none-too-popular changes, courtesy of The New York Times’s Nick Bilton:

To start, Twitter will require that any developer using the A.P.I. to be authenticated on the platform. This will be done to “prevent malicious use of the Twitter API and gain an understanding of what types of applications” using the service, [Twitter VP of product] Michael Sippey wrote.

Twitter will also begin limiting how often applications can access the company’s A.P.I. in third-party apps. Until now, Twitter has been offering a “one size fits all” approach to developers.

Twitter also said it was redefining its “Developer Rules of the Road,” and would start enforcing stricter guidelines for new apps that are developed on the platform.

Sippey said developers have six months to switch to the new API.