App permissions

OAuth 1.0a App permissions

App permissions describe the access level for OAuth 1.0a application-user authentication. App permissions are configured per application within your Twitter App settings. 

There are three levels of permission available:

  1. Read only
  2. Read and write
  3. Read, write and access Direct Messages
     

An additional permission exists to request visibility of a user’s email address - this can be combined with any of the three levels listed above.

If a permission level is changed, any user tokens already issued to that Twitter app must be discarded and users must re-authorize the App in order for the token to inherit the updated permissions.

A good practice is to request only the minimum level of access to a user’s account data that an application or service requires.

Read only

This permission level permits read access to Twitter resources, including (for example) a user’s Tweets, home timeline, and profile information. It does not allow access to read a user’s Direct Messages, and it does not allow to update any element or object.

Read and write

This permission level permits read and write access to Twitter resources. In addition to allowing read access, it also allow to post Tweets, follow users, or update elements of a user’s profile information. It also allow to hide replies on behalf of the authenticating user. This permission level does not allow any access to Direct Messages (including read, write, or delete).

Read, write and access Direct Messages

This permission level includes access to all of the above and adds the ability to read, write and delete Direct Messages on behalf of a user.

 

Additional: Request email address

This additional permission may be combined with any of the other levels. When authorizing a Twitter App, the user will also be informed that the app may request visibility of any email address associated with the account (via the account/verify_credentials endpoint). To use this permission, the app settings must be configured to point to valid privacy policy and terms of service URLs via the app's settings so that users understand the terms under which their email address may be used and stored.

Determining permissions

All authenticated API requests return an x-access-level header in the HTTP response. The value of the header shows the current permission level in use. Possible values are read, read-write, and read-write-directmessages.