Twitterrific Or Twitterdumb? New App 'Feature' Uncovered That Might Upset Some Users

The recent arrival of Twitterrific 5 into the App Store was met with positive reviews. In fact, the universal app received AppAdvice’s “App of the Week” award on Dec. 10. The Twitter client, however, includes a feature you won’t find on the app’s iTunes page. In fact, we’re guessing it is something that will tick some users off. When users click on an App Store link within Twitterrific, an affiliate link is hit first. In other words, Twitterrific is making money each time it directs you to Apple’s digital hub. We’re not necessarily saying that this is wrong. In fact, other apps are almost certainly doing the same. Still, this is probably something the folks at The Iconfactory should have disclosed when the app was first released. Additionally, they are doing this as they are also charging users $2.99 for the app.

Has anyone else noticed that Twitterrific 5 routes App Store URLs through an affiliate link before opening the Store? — Preshit Deorukhkar (@preshit) December 18, 2012

  For his part, Twifferrific's Craig Hockenberry has taken to Twitter and suggests that this isn't a big deal. He states:

@preshit @ihkdesign We're not trying to hide anything, just didn't think it was a big deal. Will definitely be adding a FAQ item to explain… — Craig Hockenberry (@chockenberry) December 19, 2012

  We reached out to the Twitterrific team and this is what we received:

We've commented on Twitter to a bunch of people who have asked. Referral links to the App Store are an Apple approved process and we implemented it to help pay for the development of Twitterrific v5. We don't over-write existing affiliate links if they already exist, and only add to URL's that don't already have them that open to the App Store. Since people seem to have questions about this very common practice, we'll be adding a knowledge base article on the subject when we return from our holiday break. The Iconfactory is currently closed until Jan 2nd for the Christmas break.

Here is the official blog post addressing it, as well. Thanks for your quick response, Craig. We thank Twitter user @preshit for first bringing this information to our attention.

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