It has been a few days since the news broke that Tweetro had run into Twitter’s new API limits when it comes to allowed user tokens for their Twitter application.

That generated quite a response online as Tweetro had quickly become very popular on the newly released Windows 8 OS.  The other reason this got a lot of attention is that many folks are not real thrilled about Twitter’s latest restrictions on their API and how its squeezes out third party developers who many felt made the social service what it is today by giving users access to it through multiple devices and channels in the early days of its existence.

Just a few days later the team at Lazyworm Applications Ltd. decided they could not allow their fans and users run into this lack of service when customers tried to connect the app to Twitter so they decided to pull Tweetro from the Windows Store on at least a temporary basis.

All during that time Atta Elayyan, the co-founder of Lazyworm Applications, and his team were in a dialog with Twitter about the situation to try and get a resolution that would allow Tweetro to continue to be offered on Windows 8.

The justification he used was “that until Twitter releases an official application on Windows 8, their customers would essentially be settling for a ‘second class’ experience and hence Tweetro should be allowed to fill that void especially considering the positive response it has received from the Windows 8 community.”

Atta has now heard back from Twitter with a definitive answer and as Atta put it to me “the news is not good”

“Thank you for reaching out to get clarification on our developer policies. As you know, we discourage developers from building apps that replicate our core user experience (aka “Twitter clients”). We  know that there are developers that want to take their passion for Twitter and its ecosystem to unique underserved situations. As such, we have built some flexibility into our policy with regard to user  tokens – which went into effect September 5th, 2012.”

“…Unfortunately, It does not appear that your service addresses an area that our current or future products do not already serve. As such, it does not qualify for an exemption.”

With this unfortunate news Atta and the team at Lazyworm have had to make some hard choices:

Unless Twitter is willing to change their position, it is with great sadness that I announce we will no longer be able to distribute Tweetro for free. 

The free version has been pulled from the Windows Store and an ‘exclusive’ paid version will be launched in the weeks to come.  When the paid version goes live, users who are using the free version of Tweetro will be kindly requested to update to the paid version if they wish to continue using the service.

As much as we’d love to continue supporting Tweetro as a free app, it simply doesn’t make sense for us under these new restrictions.  We hope that people understand our situation and continue showing us their support as we’d love nothing more than to continue delivering the best possible Twitter experience on Windows 8… Even if it’s only accessible to a very limited number of people.

For those interested in following our progress, we’ll be posting regular updates via our Twitter pages @tweetroapp and @lazywormapps

This is truly unfortunate and quite short sighted of Twitter to limit the availability of alternative Twitter applications while they do not have an official app in the Windows Store.

I for one will be waiting with my money to purchase the paid version of Tweetro when it comes out.

How about you – where do you stand on this situation?

For me I think this news does not bode well for other third party Twitter apps in the Windows Store as they become popular.  I guess we will see soon enough.