Support for basic user authentication in many desktop Twitter applications will end at 8AM Pacific time this Tuesday morning, according to Twitter.
Applications which don’t switch to the microblogging service’s new ‘O Auth’ user authentication system, which is touted as being more secure as you only need to provide your password to Twitter, will all API requests met with a 404.
This result, dubbed the ‘oauthcalypse’ by many, will be largely irrelevant for users of popular Twitter-using applications. Developers have long been aware of the deadline and as such programmes like Tweetdeck, Seesmic & Gwibber have either already made the switch or are about to deploy support for it.
Gwibber & OAuth
To better demonstrate how much of a non-issue O Auth will make to your life we’ll see how different adding an account in Gwibber is.
Instead of simply letting you dial in your username and password to set up a Twitter account Gwibber provides an ‘authorise’ button.
This button, when pressed, opens up the official Twitter page ‘in app’ to allow you to permit the application access.
Click ‘Allow’ and the window closes, taking you back to the application.
The switch may be a minor inconvenience to some but one worth it for the enhanced security afforded.