X (once called blue bird Twitter) new API policy axes another one: Hug Fairy shutting down

Twitter ‘took over’ the media recently following the news of its renaming to ‘X’. The new development generated the reaction of the community in the form of criticism, or even mockery.

However, long before the renaming, Twitter (with Elon Musk in charge) changed its API policy, basically making it paid. This caused some services based on the Twitter API to stop working.

Now, the community is lamenting that Hug Fairy, one of the most curious and popular bots, is shutting down due to the aforementioned API changes.

Twitter made the paid API as one of the potential forms of monetization that could help them achieve the long-awaited profitability in the future. Of course, the change brought a lot of criticism in its day.

Following user feedback, Elon Musk announced a ‘lightweight’ API intended for those multiple text-based bots running on Twitter. However, this would not help bots whose operation is a bit more complex.

This seems to be the case of ‘The Hug Fairy’, a curious bot that allowed Twitter users to send ‘virtual hugs’ to others, allowing you to check on a website who has sent you hugs.

That said, a few hours ago, The Hug Fairy official profile revealed that the bot is shutting down because its operation required paying a lot of money for the premium API access (as it is not a text-based only bot).

Dear friends. After 10 years, the Hug Fairy is shutting down. Twitter’s new API access policies have made it impossible to keep going without spending thousands on premium access.

Farewell to you all, and thanks for all the hugs.
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The news was sadly received by many people who either currently use the service or used it in the past. After all, Hug Fairy had been around for a decade.

devastated im not gonna lie 🫠 hug fairy is the backbone of twitter ldr yearning
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the hug fairy always reminds me of madlgc, i’ll miss you and miss them so much 🙁
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The Hug Fairy shutdown is causing a ‘nostalgia attack’ among those who have ever used the service to interact with their beloved ones. Currently, Twitter is full of stories like the following:

i remember that time when my boyfriend, @nivorak and i weren’t in a good term but we’re still sending each other hugs through hug fairy. we were so eager to get *big hug*! and everything got better slowly after that. 🥺💚
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Sadly, it’s unlikely that the service will ever return anytime soon since it doesn’t look like Twitter will be changing its API policy (which has been in effect since February of this year).

So, people can only fondly remember how the bot allowed them to interact in a curious but ‘wholesome’ way with their loved ones.

Featured Image: Twitter

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