Migrating to followers terminology

Page history last edited by Alex Payne 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Introduction

 
On July 19th, 2007, Twitter deployed a site-wide change in language and terminology.  While a post to the official Twitter blog explains the change in brief, this document intends to clarify the new terminology for third-party application developers.  The goal is for all applications to reflect the new terminology so as not to confuse end users.
 

The Old Terminology

 
Twitter users previously had "friends" and "followers".  A "friend" meant another user whose updates you follow in your timeline and/or on devices like SMS or IM.  A "follower" meant someone who follows your updates.  Confusion arose when asymmetrical relationships were formed (that is, a user was following another user who was not following the first user back).  Disambiguation was necessary. 
 

The New Terminology

 
Things are now decidedly simpler: you follow other users, and other users follow you.  You can turn notifications on and off on a per-user basis. 
 

Translating

 
If you want to "translate" your Twitter API application to the new terminology, here are some suggestions: 
 
  •     Change "friends" to "following" or "people you follow".
  •     "Followers" can remain the same.  In long form: "people who follow you" or "people who follow your updates.
  •     Note that the friends_timeline API method referrers to the timeline of updates from people you follow in the new terminology.
  •     Note that the friends API method retrieves a list of people you follow in the new terminology.
  •     Note that the create and destroy Friendship methods now mean "follow" and "stop following".
 

API Changes

 
In the near future, the API will change to reflect this new terminology.  These changes have not yet been decided on, and the Twitter team would love your input.  Plenty of advance notice will be given before we deprecate any existing methods.  We'll likely also be adding methods to change per-user notification preferences from the API, in keeping with the new way of doing things.
 
Thanks for your patience, support, and suggestions while we work to make Twitter the most intuitive service it can be!

 

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