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OAuth FAQ

Home Supplemental Documentation OAuth FAQ

General

What is OAuth?

OAuth is an authentication protocol that allows users to approve application to act on their behalfwithout sharing their password. More information can be found at oauth.net or in the excellentBeginner's Guide to OAuth from Hueniverse.

Where do I create an application?

You can create new applications on the Twitter Developer Site at http://dev.twitter.com/apps/new.

When are you going to turn off Basic Auth?

We announced in December of 2009 the deprecation of Basic Auth. Its removal date from the platform

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is set for June 2010. We announced towards the end of June 2010 that we have postponed this untilAugust 16th 2010.

Can my application continue to use Basic Auth?

You can continue to use Basic Auth until the turn off date, but we strongly recommend moving to

OAuth now. We have increased rate limits for OAuth traffic to api.twitter.com endpoints to 350 requestsper hour, more than double the current Basic Auth rate limit.

How do I convert my Basic Auth application to OAuth?

Conversion is largely dependent on the programming language and libraries that you use. SeeTransitioning from Basic Auth to OAuth for help.

Technical

How long does an access token last?

We do not currently expire access tokens. Your access token will be invalid if a user explicitly rejectsyour application from their settings or if a Twitter admin suspends your application. If your applicationis suspended there will be a note on your application page saying that it has been suspended.

The application registration page asks about read/write access. What constitutes a

write?

Many users trust an application to read their information but not necessarily change their name or postnew statuses. Updating information via the Twitter API - be it name, location or adding a new status -requires and HTTP POST. We stuck with the same restriction when implementing this. Any API methodthat requires an HTTP POST is considered a write method and requires read & write access.

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