GitHub - Preloading/TwitterAPIBridge: An API converter to Twitter API v1 for old devices

5 min read Original article ↗

A Twitter Bridge

from bluesky to twitter api v1

This is not affiliated with Twitter (now X) and Bluesky.

An iPhone 3G, iPhone 4S, and Nexus 4 showing the Twitter home timeline

This custom server translates Twitter V1 requests to Bluesky for Twitter clients.

Demo (ios)

IMG_0468.mov

Compatibility

To see what devices and versions are compatible, look at the compatibility list

Public Instances

https://twb.preloading.dev HTTP & HTTPS, Based on Releases (my instance) (old url still works)

https://ttwb.preloading.dev HTTP & HTTPS, Based on commits (my instance) (old url still works)

Usage

iOS Official App

  1. Install the IPA of your choosing (you can find some here, along with android versions: https://loganserver.net/twitters/, also elon don't sue me pls). At present moment, latest & recommended is 5.0.3 for offical iOS)
  2. Create a bluesky app password (assuming you have a bluesky account), menu > settings > privacy and security > app passwords. You will want to enable DMs for future DM compatibility.
  3. Open the Twitter app
  4. Click the login button
  5. Click the cog button
  6. Put your instance for both urls. You must include either http:// or https:// at the beginning. Do not include a slash at the end. You can find these urls/servers in the Public Instances section above.
  7. Type in your bluesky handle for the username, and your bluesky app password as the password. Usage of normal passwords is not recommended, and will be forbidden in the future
  8. Login
  9. Hopefully success

iOS Integration (+ image uploads on the app)

  1. Have a jailbroken iOS device running either iOS 5-6 (older versions don't have the twitter integration, and newer are incompatible with this server, but this will still make images work)
  2. Add to cydia either http://cydia.bag-xml.com or http://cydia.skyglow.es to the sources tab
  3. Find the Bluetweety tweak, and install it.
  4. Go to Settings > Bluetweety. (If it does not show up, check that you actually installed it.
  5. Input the server url you will use. DO NOT INCLUDE http:// OR https:// AT THE BEGINING AND THE SLASH AT THE END!!! You can find a list of URLS in the Public Instances section
  6. Reboot your phone.
  7. Go to Settings > Twitter. Type your bluesky handle in the Username field (example: preloading.bsky.social and your app password (can be the same from the app) in the respective areas. You can get an App Password here Or through BlueSky > Settings > Privacy and security > App passwords if you'd rather navigate to it yourself
  8. Click Login
  9. Disable the ability for the twitter app to view twitter accounts.
  10. Hopefully success

Hosting instructions

For hosting, you can take two paths

  • 🐳 Docker - Quick & easy to deploy + easy updating
  • 🖥 Bare metal (recommended) - Useful when developing & debugging

🐳 Docker

Warning: Docker at present moment has some preformance issues, if anyone competent in docker has any idea why, please leave a github issue :)

I assume you have some competency in docker.

Docker Compose:

services:
  twitter-bridge:
    # image: ghcr.io/preloading/twitterapibridge:main # main = releases/stable
    image: ghcr.io/preloading/twitterapibridge:dev # dev=latest commits/test version
    environment:
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_DATABASE_TYPE=sqlite
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_DATABASE_PATH=/config/database/sqlite.db
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_CDN_URL=http://127.0.0.1
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_SERVER_PORT=3000
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_TRACK_ANALYTICS=true
      - TWITTER_BRIDGE_DEVELOPER_MODE=false
    ports:
      - "80:3000"
    volumes:
      - '/opt/twitterbridge/sqlite:/config/sqlite' # Path where the SQLite DB is stored. It is safe to remove if you aren't using SQLite for your database.
Env Function Default
TWITTER_BRIDGE_DATABASE_TYPE They type of database to connect to. Options include sqlite, mysql, and postgres. "sqlite"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_DATABASE_PATH Changes where it looks for the database (Path/DSN) (see https://gorm.io/docs/connecting_to_the_database.html) "/config/database/sqlite.db"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_CDN_URL The CDN_URL is the URL where clients can access images from this server. Do not include a trailing slash. "http://127.0.0.1:3000"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_IMG_DISPLAY_TEXT The display URL shown in tweets for images. See config.sample.yaml for more info. "pic.twitter.com/{shortblob}"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_VID_DISPLAY_TEXT The display URL shown in tweets for videos. See config.sample.yaml for more info. "pic.twitter.com/{shortblob}"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_IMG_URL_TEXT The URL where the client will go when clicking an image link. See config.sample.yaml for more info. "http://127.0.0.1:3000/img/{shortblob}"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_VID_URL_TEXT The URL where the client will go when clicking an video link. See config.sample.yaml for more info. "http://127.0.0.1:3000/img/{shortblob}"
TWITTER_BRIDGE_SERVER_PORT The port where the server is running 3000
TWITTER_BRIDGE_TRACK_ANALYTICS Enables tracking of analytics (at the moment the only way to view this is by looking at the database) true
TWITTER_BRIDGE_USE_X_FORWARDED_FOR Uses X_Forwarded_For when used thru a proxy. false
TWITTER_BRIDGE_DEVELOPER_MODE Enables extra loggging of data useful for debugging. WARNING!: DO NOT ENABLE ON A PUBLIC INSTANCE!!!! false
TWITTER_BRIDGE_MIN_TOKEN_VERSION Sets the minimum token version. If this is a new server, it should be set to 2. If you want to keep older users signed in, set it to 1 1
TWITTER_BRIDGE_SECRET_KEY The JWT secret key. KEEP THIS SECRET!!!! This follows everything that a normal JWT must be. None
TWITTER_BRIDGE_SERVER_IDENTIFIER A way for other services to know which server issued a token. Try to keep this unique across servers. None
TWITTER_BRIDGE_SERVER_URLS URLs your server can be accessesed, stored in the token. None

🖥 Bare metal (recommended)

This assumes you are somewhat competent

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/Preloading/TwitterAPIBridge.git

2. Duplicate and rename config.sample.yaml as config.yaml

3. Configure config.yaml (edit the file, you'll see decription of what each thing does)

4. Run/build

If you want to just run this in the directory when you found config.sample.yaml

If you want to build the project run this in the directory when you found config.sample.yaml

5. (if building) open the executable

6. (hopefully) success!

Accuracy

This server is no where close to 100% accurate. Most of the the time this accuracy is having more values responed than what should be, and it shouldn't affect clients using this.

Support

I give some support in bag's server under #bluetweety, https://discord.gg/bag-xml

Thanks to

@Preloading, I wrote the thing

@Savefade, Gave me info on some of the requests

@retrofoxxo, Helped with getting android working with this server