Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here’s how to get it back

In case you’ve never heard of it, Echofon for Firefox was an add-on for Firefox that allowed users to interact with Twitter without going to the official Twitter website. Available as a small pop-up window in the browser’s status bar, Echofon was a convenient and minimalist way to compose tweets, replies, and browse Twitter.

The last version of Echofon for Firefox ever released, version 2.5.2.
The last version of Echofon for Firefox ever released, version 2.5.2.

As of October 2012, Echofon for Firefox was officially discontinued by its developers so they could focus on versions of Echofon for mobile platforms (iPad, Android, and iPhone) instead. This wasn’t the end of the world, though, because Echofon would continue working as long as Twitter API 1.0 was still active.

With this foreboding message, Echofon for Firefox stopped receiving updates.
With this foreboding message, Echofon for Firefox stopped receiving updates.

Since this article exists, I think you can guess what the problem is: As of June 12, 2013, Twitter API 1.0 has been officially shut down, which also killed Echofon for thousands of users.

Users were left with this simple message when they opened Firefox today:

Can’t login to Twitter. (410 Gone (account_verify_credentials))

I wouldn’t be writing this article if it was all bad news, so here’s how to keep Echofon for Firefox working after the Twitter API change.

Patched Echofon saves the day for Twitter API 1.1

When I opened Firefox today and noticed that Echofon wasn’t working anymore, I immediately assumed the worst. Doing a quick Twitter search for “echofon firefox” confirmed my suspicions that my beloved extension had officially died.

However, something useful popped up in my search: Apparently, someone had patched Echofon and updated it to use Twitter API 1.1, which replaced the dead API 1.0. Rather than blindly run this updated extension, I took some time to do a file-by-file comparison between the patched version and the official version to make sure nothing nefarious was happening behind-the-scenes.

What I found were fairly minor modifications, and none of them appear to be malicious. Based on my findings, I decided to try the patched version for myself.

(Please note that I am not a computer security expert, so do not take this as a “seal of approval” or anything. Using 3rd-party software of any type, especially patched software, comes with piles of inherent risk.)

The tragic part about Echofon’s demise is that it ultimately comes down to some very simple code modifications:

[code lang=”javascript”]
// const TWITTER_API_URL    = "api.twitter.com/1.0/"; // old and busted
const TWITTER_API_URL    = "api.twitter.com/1.1/"; // new hotness
[/code]

Without further adieu, here’s how to switch over to the patched version of Echofon.

How to install the patch

  1. Download the patched version of Echofon. The latest version of the patch appears to be “6”.
  2. In Firefox, navigate to your Extensions page. You can find this by navigating to the big Firefox menu, then selecting Add-ons. In the Add-ons window, click Extensions in the sidebar. You can also use the convenient shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A to access this menu.2013-06-12_12h46_53
  3. After navigating to the Extensions tab in the Add-on window, locate a gear icon in the top right corner. Click it and select Install Add-on From File…2013-06-12_12h48_07
  4. Locate the file you downloaded in Step 1 and open it
  5. Restart Firefox

After following those steps, you should see that Echofon for Firefox is again alive and well.

Performing your own analysis

If you want to independently check out what’s been changed in the patched version of this extension, comparing them is actually quite easy. Firefox extensions are packed as a .xpi file, which is actually just a compressed .zip folder. Just rename the file to .zip and you can extract it to your local computer.

By extracting both the patched version and the official version, I was able to use a great tool called Beyond Compare to perform a full directory comparison and analyze the modifications that were made to the extension.

Comparing the contents of the patched extension to the official extension
Comparing the contents of the patched extension to the official extension

Is there any chance of an official updated version for API 1.1?

I’d say it is very unlikely.

2013-06-12_18h16_34


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129 responses to “Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here’s how to get it back”

  1. telejunkie Avatar
    telejunkie

    Are there any instructions of where/how to change that single line of code on the original xpi manually for the paranoid people?

    Also, was that single line indeed the only change you found in your analysis? Or were there any other changes?

    The original Echofon 2.5.2 xpi I have has a CRC32 of F4CEB340, while the -jahiy-6 version has a CRC32 of 8A230FE8. I assume those are the versions you compared.

    I’d feel a bit better if you could list the changes found to make sure everything’s on the up-and-up (assuming there aren’t too many changes to list) compared to the old official xpi, or instructions on how to edit that original one.

    Thanks for the article!

    1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

      Although the API version in the API URL is the *essential* change that took place, there were several other API calls that had to be modified to either update the API version or to make a minor change to the API call itself due to a change in its functionality. Overall, I felt the changes were very minor and all seemed to be directly related to the differences in the API versions.

      If you have a copy of both the original version and the patched version, I’d recommend doing what I explained at the end of the article to compare the source of both extensions. I used Beyond Compare which is a commercial product, but you can also check out WinMerge which is free and appears to offer a directory comparison feature: http://manual.winmerge.org/Compare_dirs.html

      1. telejunkie Avatar
        telejunkie

        Thanks for the reply and the tip! I used WinMerge to compare the original 2.5.2 and the v6 patch. Result was 29 identical files and 6 different files.

        Changes I found:

        – New version allows the max version of firefox to be 30.0a1 (old one allowed 18.0a1)

        – api.twitter.com/1/ changed to api.twitter.com/1.1/

        – userstream.twitter.com/2 changed to userstream.twitter.com/1.1

        – search/api changes

        – license verification changes

        – ad-related changes

        Those are the changes from 5 out of 6 different files. The only file that couldn’t be compared is Echofon.jar. The original one seems to have normal English text, while the patched one shows gibberish, maybe due to different encoding or something, I’m not sure.

        Excluding that file, everything seems fine and safe, nothing malicious or password-stealing. Were you able to compare the .jar file?

        1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

          Thanks for posting your findings!

          To check out the .jar file, you can use a free tool like 7-Zip to open the file: http://www.7-zip.org/

          1. telejunkie Avatar
            telejunkie

            Great!

            Used that to extract original and patched jar, this time we have 148 identical files inside and 5 different ones. Looks like the changes are even more minor — removal of some “//”‘s, a change of a ‘url’ to an ‘expanded_url’ and ‘val.description’ has been changed to ‘whoami’. That’s it!

            Thanks again, will keep this patched XPI in case of re-installs and such, hopefully it will last as long as the old version lasted until Twitter changes something again…

  2. runawaychris Avatar
    runawaychris

    Thanks for the article. Installed it fine but no button appears on the taskbar to open the client. Any ideas?

    Edit: Turns out it was just a case of adding a button from the toolbar customise menu!

  3. Otavio Avatar
    Otavio

    I love you, man!

  4.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you SO much!

  5. sysin3 Avatar
    sysin3

    Excellent! I missed my Echofon all day. Janetter is a pretty good desktop client, but I still prefer Echofon in Firefox.

  6. Ticfordoph 으◇으 Avatar
    Ticfordoph 으◇으

    OMG!!! How I say…so much thank you. Echofon is my favorite twitter client. I can’t use another client because Echofon is BEST!

    Anyway, when @echofon reply you in twitter, it’s make me feel bad a bit -.-

  7. vamp iyer Avatar
    vamp iyer

    thank you Evan, for sharing this with us. and the person who patched the new API to the addon- you stay blessed.

  8. Tina Hunter Avatar

    Awesome. I can’t find anything that comes close to Echofon… though, you’d think that if someone did the work for them they’d just pay the guy who updated it and claim it as their own.. I’m just happy to have Echofon back up and running. 🙂

  9. Craig Stump Avatar
    Craig Stump

    Awesome find – many many thanks!

  10. Sean x Crosser Avatar
    Sean x Crosser

    Thanks for pointing this patch out! It just feels weird to use Firefox without Echofon/Twitterfox on, it’s become an integral part of my browser.

    Do you got anything on why the Retweet function is unuseable?

    1.  Avatar
      Anonymous

      I’m wondering about that, myself…perhaps a change in the API that broke the retweet function?

  11. […] The old Twitter API 1.0 is officially shut down and hence, the Echofon for Firefox will not work anymore. More details in THIS ARTICLE. […]

  12.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you.

  13. Daniele Franceschi Avatar
    Daniele Franceschi

    Tried to apply the changes to the standalone echofon for windows, which is the firefox extension packaged with XULRunner. No way. I’ll make more tests later.

    1. Carl Oxwall Avatar

      I salute your effort, mate. Keep working strong, I know you’ll make this happen! 😉

  14. iScrag Avatar

    Can you resurrect desktop version too?

    1. Mateng Avatar
      Mateng

      I think this patched version is working. Let us now if it does for you: https://github.com/mynetx/echofon-windows (Direct zip DL: https://github.com/mynetx/echofon-windows/archive/master.zip)

  15. flyers28 Avatar
    flyers28

    While I enjoy Echofon, I certainly am not tech savvy. Some assistance would be greatly appreciated. I downloaded the zip file for version 6 and the only file I would think to run is “install.rdf” but my computer cannot find a program to run this file. Help?

    1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

      Make sure to follow the 5-step instructions in this article. After downloading the file, you need to continue to Step 2 to add the add-on to Firefox. You only need to mess with the zip file if you want to inspect the contents of the extension to verify its safety.

      1. flyers28 Avatar
        flyers28

        I thought I was following those steps but my mistake was opening the file vs saving it to the desktop. All good now. Thanks for this.

  16. Jorge Salinas Avatar
    Jorge Salinas

    THANKS!!!!

  17.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you, man!

  18. Luciana Avatar
    Luciana

    now missing fix search Echofon in this very slowly

    Thanks

  19.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank goodness!!

  20. Marco Paulo Avatar
    Marco Paulo

    thank you for this!

  21. kontrahörnchen Avatar
    kontrahörnchen

    I was really disappointed when I saw that Echofon wasn’t working anymore because it had always been my favourite Twitter client. Finding your article brightened my day a lot, thank you so much for this!

    It works perfectly except for the search function. No matter if I’m searching for a hash tag or manually typing in a search term, it just doesn’t show any results. So now I’m wondering if I’m the only person having trouble with this or if it’s a common problem?

  22. aki Avatar
    aki

    the search option on echofon doesnt work for me…

    1. M Fiky Putra Aditama Avatar
      M Fiky Putra Aditama

      me too 🙁

  23. Peter Reid Avatar
    Peter Reid

    Well thanks for that! Echofon is really useful for quicks dips into Twitter, and it would have been a shame to lose such a useful add-on. So thanks again for sharing, and thanks to whoever patched it

  24.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Absolutely brilliant, I love Echofon so losing it for a few days has been hard :- Thanks for the great post and also to telejunkie for checking the patch, can never be too sure these days.

  25.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you so much. I can’t find anything better for echofon. You made my day.

  26. Leonardo Nascimento Avatar
    Leonardo Nascimento

    Could someone do the same with Echofon for Windows? Many thanks!

  27. Carl Oxwall Avatar

    It was just the other day I first noticed how Echofon for Firefox wouldn’t connect anymore. Truly sad, since I have paid real cash for this product. Anyways, this thread (patch) sorted my Firefox extension out. Big thanks!

  28. Mave Avatar
    Mave

    OH GOD! Thank you!

  29. star Avatar
    star

    I seem to be able to get everything working except my lists. Are lists loading for anyone else?

  30. Mike Carrels Avatar
    Mike Carrels

    Thank you thank you thank you thank you, 1,000 times thank you.

  31. april Avatar
    april

    Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  32.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you for this article. Echofon is my favorite Twitter client. I was so sad when it disappeared from Firefox this week. I tried three other Twitter add-ons and nothing could compare.

    This patch installed just fine for me, but I can’t seem to get the “@” tab to load. Seems everyone is saying one different section of the add-on isn’t loading. Any help anyone can give me with this would be great.

  33. Heather Stratford Avatar

    Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much 🙂

  34. Mrs. H Avatar
    Mrs. H

    Thank you!! 🙂

  35. Arun PR Avatar
    Arun PR

    thanks so much.. echofon is my fav twitter client..

  36. Revsimmy Avatar
    Revsimmy

    Thank you (and the author of the patch) so much for this. I was on holiday when the API changed and disappointed to get the error message. There is really nothing like echofon for keeping up with twitter when using Firefox. I notice that the annoying ads have disappeared from the top of the timeline too, so an added bonus!

  37. Shim Avatar
    Shim

    is there an easy fix like this for the windows version of echofon?

    1. Daniele Franceschi Avatar
      Daniele Franceschi

      I updated the windows version with the latest fixes found here and nope. Maybe the problem stands in the platform-specific dlls.

  38. aki Avatar
    aki

    even the patched version number “7” the search option still doesnt work…….

  39. Jonathan Paula Avatar
    Jonathan Paula

    This method thankfully worked for me — but since the patch/update Echofon is pulling any of my @replies when Firefox is closed… I only get messages while the browser is open, making it rather useless in that department.

    Anyone else experiencing this? Anyone have a solution?

  40. Anonyme Avatar
    Anonyme

    Thank you so much dude!

  41. Devar Avatar
    Devar

    Whoever patched this to API 1.1, thank you. It’s THE client I’ve used on the desktop since day dot (years!) so to have it back again is amazing.

  42. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    This patch got my Echofon working again… for a few days. Now it’s stopped and the timeline wont update. 🙁

  43.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    I love you guys, this is the most and only worth add-on for twitter in firefox out there, i was in a verge of losing my mind today,but you saved my ass, again thank you i really mean it.

  44. Nathan Avatar
    Nathan

    Thanks!! My echofon works again 😀

  45.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Great to see that someone has resurrected the Echofon client…now I wonder if Echofon would let someone else take over the Firefox client if they aren’t maintaining that any longer

  46. Clain Dsilva Avatar
    Clain Dsilva

    You Saved my day ..!! Great finding

  47. Gruby Avatar
    Gruby

    even the patched version number “8” the search option still doesnt work…….

  48.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Now if the retweet function can be fixed this patched Echofon(if it is possible to) will be even better. Also while the search function works for me its rather slow.

  49.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    thank you so much, I can enjoy echofon again.

  50. […] Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here's how to get it back (techerator.com) […]

  51. Nico Avatar
    Nico

    It works! Thank you very much!

  52. […] Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here's how to get it back (techerator.com) […]

  53. […] Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here's how to get it back (techerator.com) […]

  54. PHP Developer Avatar

    Tweet @echofon and let them know you love this plugin!

  55. Maíra Avatar
    Maíra

    Thank you!!!!!!!

  56. Daniele Franceschi Avatar
    Daniele Franceschi

    I found this *working* desktop version: https://github.com/mynetx/echofon-windows

    Enjoy 🙂

  57. n_adam Avatar
    n_adam

    Ach bad news, though it may just be mine, but as of tonight the patched version seems to have died. I was not getting new tweets this evening, yet Twitter in the browser was up to date. Felt familiar. So I did a cache clear/restart and since then just get empty grey and nothing, which happened when the actual Echofon died before the patch. Plus I was getting loads of retweets this last few days too even after clicking again and again ‘none’ at the source accounts. Real bummer, back to the lesser options I guess.

  58. […] Echofon for Firefox dies after Twitter API changes – Here's how to get it back (techerator.com) […]

  59. guest Avatar
    guest

    the search option doesnt work……………………….. everything else is perfect!!

  60. Mateng Avatar
    Mateng

    Thanks for the good news. I am already working with the patched plugin (currently version 8).
    However, uploading images stopped working altogether. Has anyone found a
    solution for this? Maybe we can patch the patch together to support
    echofon image upload again…

  61. mttorley Avatar
    mttorley

    Thank you! I was feeling rather disconnected and didn’t know why:) Now I have my official time wasting tool back, ha ha.

  62. Stefan Avatar
    Stefan

    Amazing 🙂 Thanks for the great post and the help, my favorite client is back!

  63. Spid3r Avatar

    Cant add additional account 🙁

    1. DeepDayze Avatar
      DeepDayze

      Seems to be no such project as get a 404. Was it removed?

    2. Spid3r Avatar

      Cant understand how to install 🙁

    3. Evan Wondrasek Avatar

      Thanks for sharing! Looks like a typo in the URL though, should be:

      https://github.com/notechofon/notechofon

      I enjoyed your legal disclaimer in the project 🙂

  64. aki Avatar
    aki

    help me pleaseeee! how can i install nonechofon ???

  65. Sangimed Avatar
    Sangimed

    it still working with the latest FF version ?

  66. candell Avatar
    candell

    I used this patch when it first came out and it has been working great. Just wanted to come back to report that it still works on FF 29 (the Chrome lookalike rebrand) although the close button (x) is missing from mine now.

  67. Khalid Ali Haji Avatar

    It still works perfectly on Firefox 30.0 + Windows 8.1. Thanks a lot!

  68. jonfen Avatar
    jonfen

    Hi Evan, I used this patch since its creation and all worked fine, now
    after installing Firefox 36 the patched echofon has troubles again, does
    not refresh etcetera. Would it be possibile to have a new patched
    version to work with this new Firefox?
    Thank you.

    1. Lilah Avatar
      Lilah

      The same here…=/

    2. Guest Avatar
      Guest

      To whom it may concern: a working fix is here https://twitter.com/Blerkotron/status/570926219845361664

  69. Lilah Avatar
    Lilah

    Help us! Echofon died in Firefox 36…=/

  70. Lilah Avatar
    Lilah

    In fact, almost everything is normal. Popups and notifications are ok. Just is not updating the timeline.

  71. Blerkotron Avatar
    Blerkotron

    I found the same problem this morning, so I produced a fix based on jahiy’s patch above which seems to work okay for me. The link below contains a new xpi and a description of what I changed in case you want to dig into the code and take a look. Hope this helps:

    http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=68525266743390541962

    1. Lilah Avatar
      Lilah

      I’ll take a look and try. Thanks again!

    2. april Avatar
      april

      Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    3. Otavio Avatar
      Otavio

      Thanks a lot!

    4. sysin3 Avatar
      sysin3

      Thanks for this fix ! I have been missing my Echofon.

      There is an additional problem which has been present for a long time, but I’m not good enough with this code to find it.

      If a tweet contains a dollar sign ($) anywhere in it, the tweet shows up as blank.

      If you have the urge to root around in it someday … 😉

  72. Blerkotron Avatar
    Blerkotron

    If you don’t want to install my fix, you can make the old version work by choosing to display tweets in the sidebar or in a pop-up window instead. It’s just the panel view that’s broken.

    1. Lilah Avatar
      Lilah

      It works, man! Thanks! I’m love Firefox and Echofon!

    2. eldar4k Avatar
      eldar4k

      Thank you for amazing job! everything works just fine!

    3. Kate Jones Avatar
      Kate Jones

      Thank you SO SO MUCH!

  73. stevie Avatar
    stevie

    nope..the search option doesnt work at all..

    1. Blerkotron Avatar
      Blerkotron

      That’s not a new thing – it never worked for me in the previous patched versions either. The only fix here is for the newly-broken panel mode, everything else is as it was before.

      1. DADA Avatar
        DADA

        and the search option is the MOST useful ..if someone finds a solution , pleaseee let us know..

          1. DADA Avatar
            DADA

            “””this item doesnt exist “””

          2. DADA Avatar
            DADA

            this one on “mediafire” cant authorize my profile on twitter, cant have access on twitter at all…
            (and is seems sooooo perfect, has the “x” button also)

          3. MickBim Avatar
            MickBim

            Do you know who did this modification ?
            I’d like to implement the carriage return in tweets on Echofon for Firefox but I can’t find someone to help me 🙁

          4. Antoine Turmel Avatar
            Antoine Turmel

            Did you made all the changes inside ? Could you propose them here in a pull request ? https://github.com/AntoineTurmel/echofon-firefox-unofficial Hopefuly we could build a good fork 🙂

          5. eloi Avatar
            eloi

            GOD BLESS YOU!!!! I’ve been in despair for the last few days!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

          6. Al Taylor Avatar
            Al Taylor

            How to install? I wanna try it.

  74. :| Avatar
    😐

    : [ RIP Firefox 36

  75. JonathanisPrimus Avatar
    JonathanisPrimus

    I can’t get Echofon working on a new machine. When I link some accounts to add-on I get a Javascript error telling me it couldn’t get the Oauth.

    1. eloi Avatar
      eloi

      check out antoine turmel’s post: https://github.com/AntoineTurmel/echofon-firefox-unofficial/releases
      worked like a charm!!! i want to cry

      1. JonathanisPrimus Avatar
        JonathanisPrimus

        Yep, that’s working! Thanks!

        1. Al Taylor Avatar
          Al Taylor

          How to install it? I wanna try.

          1. JonathanisPrimus Avatar
            JonathanisPrimus

            Click “echofon_for_twitter-2.5.4.xpi” in the link eloi posted above. That should prompt Firefox to ask if you want to install that plugin. Accept and you should be good to go.

  76. eloi Avatar
    eloi

    any idea why i get a javascript error about failing to get the oauth token when i try to add an account 🙁 ?

  77. idee Avatar
    idee

    the search option still cant find previous posts..
    try, it shows that its searching and searching but cant find anything..

  78. Al Taylor Avatar
    Al Taylor

    Anybody can help Mozilla 40?

  79. Lilah Avatar
    Lilah

    Does not work in Firefox 43 64bits… =/

    I need Echofon back…!!!!

      1. Lilah Avatar
        Lilah

        Wow…now work again. Tks! =*

  80. Otavio Avatar
    Otavio

    Does not work in Firefox 44 🙁

      1. Otavio Avatar
        Otavio

        thank you! its working now!

      2. eloi Avatar
        eloi

        How do you make it work? it gives me a zip file, how do i turn it into xpi? thanks!

          1. eloi Avatar
            eloi

            ah it was so easy! thank you!!

  81. DeepDayze Avatar
    DeepDayze

    Echofox rocks…now only if retweet function could be fixed and then it be one decent client. Echofon is dead long live Echofox!

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