Xbox owners can no longer share game captures directly from their consoles to Twitter, as Microsoft drops support for the social media platform on Xbox as well as its advertising platform.
The ability to upload in-game screenshots and gameplay video straight from your Xbox to Twitter is no more, as console players discovered over the weekend. Twitter user @flintdawg8208 shared a screenshot of their dashboard with the option missing from the drop down, saying, "we can’t share clips with Twitter anymore."
The official Xbox Twitter account replied, saying the company has "had to disable the ability to share game uploads to Twitter directly from the console and Game Bar on Windows." It didn't offer any explanation as to why it's had to do that, but the good news is that you can still share your game uploads to Twitter using the Xbox app for Android and iOS..
Free bird
Outside of this console update, there's a potential war brewing between Microsoft and Elon Musk. As well as removing Twitter sharing functionality from its console, Microsoft has removed Twitter from its Microsoft Advertising plan. The company announced that "Smart Campaigns with Multi-platform will no longer support Twitter."
The changes come into effect tomorrow, and users will no longer be able to access Twitter through the platform's social management tool, create and manage drafts or Tweets, view past Tweets and engagement, or schedule Tweets. All other social media channels, like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, will still be available.
It's possible that Microsoft is simply unwilling to pay the new API fees that were introduced last month. Twitter announced the new tiers on March 30, saying that access to current tiers would be withdrawn over the following 30-day period. That just about lines up with Microsoft's removal of Twitter support from its platforms, so while there's no official word on reasoning, it's a good a guess as any.
Elon Musk hasn't taken the news well, and is throwing his toys out of the pram on Twitter again. Responding to a tweet about the timing of the Microsoft Advertising plan dropping Twitter as the new fees roll out, Musk replied "They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time." So I'm sure that will pan out well for him.
In the meantime, PlayStation owners can still share game uploads to Twitter directly from their consoles – for now. Mirror Gaming has reached out to Sony to find out if it has plans to follow Xbox's suit.
