Is there a way to get app whitelisted for more follow POSTs?

[HeroicSocialApp]

The current rate limit for friendships/create (following) is 15 over a 15 minute interval. This is extremely low for apps that focus on growth such as ours. I know there are plenty of apps that have this restriction lifted as you can go on some of the apps that have been around for years and follow over a hundred in seconds and they all get completed successfully.

Is there a formal process to get an app whitelisted to increase this specific rate limit? If so, how can we go about requesting this privilege?

Thanks!

[andypiper]

I am not aware of any alternative limit for that endpoint - this is an account limit, not an API limit (as is the case with the majority of POST endpoints).

[HeroicSocialApp]

Let me provide some more information…

I know there are account limitations and API limitations and the difference between them.

But for any of our users, if we send 15 friendships/create requests in a 15 minute interval, if we try to send another one we get rate limited (for that user). However, on apps like crowdfireapp, there is no such limitation. I’ve personally tested that I can follow more than 100 users in a matter of a couple minutes without any rate limiting, and verified the follows were successful on Twitter.

The docs mention getting apps whitelisted but there is no specific way to request it. It certainly seems that other apps such as crowdfire are whitelisted since they are able to send much more than the 15 requests/interval rate limit default for applications and, in the name of competitive parity, I would like to request the same status.

[andypiper]

We’ve mentioned multiple times here on the forums that we cannot comment on individual apps and their adherence to policies.

If you have a concern that any app is violating Twitter’s API policy you can report them, and we thank you for helping to keep the platform safe

The docs mention getting apps whitelisted

Can you provide specific links to the API documentation you’re referring to, so that we can review? Thank you!

[HeroicSocialApp]

Thanks Andy.

Yes, the docs at https://support.twitter.com/articles/68916 say:

Are there following limits if I’m whitelisted?
Some API administrators have whitelist status so their applications can function without hitting certain system limits. Whitelisting means that an application can have more API requests per hour; it does not increase the follow limits. All whitelisted accounts are still subject to follow limits.

I realize this does not affect account limits at all, but rather API rate limits.

Now I know you can’t comment on individual apps, but it’s apparent to me that apps like crowdfire have increased API limits since they can do more than the 15 follows per 15-min interval. My question is simply… what must an application and/or developer do to obtain this privilege?

Thanks again.

[andypiper]

Correct, these are API limits, not account-based limits. Indeed, we recently raised a number of the endpoint-based API limits for a range of scenarios. There was previously an option on https://support.twitter.com/forms/platform to request elevated API access for a small range of scenarios. However, these are few and far between. Again, I apologise that I am unable to comment on individual apps or users.

[HeroicSocialApp]

Hmm, so is there specific criteria that needs to be met in order to qualify for increased rate limits? What are the small range of scenarios?

I know you can’t comment on specific apps but it seems like, for the sake competitive parity, apps that have similar features that both follow the rules to a tee should be able to qualify for the same level of access. That’d be fair at least