Twitter reportedly plans to launch a new app development platform called "Twitter Fabric," but based on their social media reactions, it may take a while to get developer relationships all sewn up.
The social networking giant will launch Twitter Fabric before or during Twitter's Flight conference for developers on Oct. 22, according to a report in The Information (subscription required). This would mark the first major effort Twitter has made to engage app makers since shutting off access to its API more than three years ago. Fabric is expected to include "digits," a way to sign up new users by telephone number, and SDKs from firms Twitter has acquired, such as MoPub and Crashlytics, among other features.
Developers quickly took to Twitter itself to respond to the reports, but many of the comments showed just how deep some of those old wounds go.
So @twitter is trying to woo developers it once scorned with "fabric": http://t.co/lRmYrsp39y Why on earth should anyone invest/trust them?
— Ian Andrew Bell (@ianb) October 1, 2014
Too little, too late. Report: Twitter Hopes to Win Back App Developers With New 'Fabric' Platform http://t.co/P19ezT4IV1 via @mashable
— Andy Badera (@andrewbadera) October 2, 2014
Open question: will that restore the lost trust? http://t.co/3uSYv2LAWX
— laurent chollat (@ChollatLaurent) October 2, 2014
Those in the wider app marketing space, in contrast, saw this as a purely strategic--and pragmatic--move on Twitter's part:
Twitter building developer offering to catch up with GOOG, FB as center of online (= mobile) identity, to collect mo…http://t.co/3oPd3aykBU
— Marko Kaasila (@mkaasila) October 1, 2014
Some suggested the details around Twitter Fabric were still a little vague to be taken seriously:
Twitter maybe has a new API called Fabric that does or does not do some things, hopefully: http://t.co/xt09KyUUdW
— Alastair Coote (@_alastair) October 2, 2014
And there were at least a few who sounded receptive to the potential platform.
"Twitter Fabric" sounds pretty damn cool. Looking forward to playing with 'Digits'! http://t.co/QPEb0lYhXN
— Joshua Comeau (@JoshuaWComeau) October 1, 2014
For the most part, however, Twitter is going to have to convince a lot of Doubting Thomases out there to make Fabric a success.
Twitter to developers: Seriously, this time you can totally trust us not to ambush you! https://t.co/6uIJEtsULT
— Jouni Miettunen (@jomtwi) October 1, 2014