Tutorial: How to request Twitter’s Bearer authentication token

A “bearer token” is a randomly generated set of characters and numbers that you will need to retrieve from your developer’s account on Twitter. This token will allow Communalytic to send secure requests to Twitter API on your behalf when collecting publicly available tweets from Twitter.

To retrieve this token, please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Apply for a developer account.

 

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Note: The standard developer’s account will allow you to collect Twitter threads (replies to a given tweet) in Communalytic. If you are also interested in collecting historical tweets via Twitter’s full-archive search endpoint, you would need to apply for access to the Academic Research track. (Once you have been granted access to the Academic Research track, Twitter will automatically upgrade your standard developer’s account and you will then be able to collect historical tweets in Communalytic.)

Step 2: Create a new Project by clicking on the “New Project” in your developer’s Dashboard or the Projects & Apps page. This option is only visible if you don’t have a Project already. (Twitter allows only one project per user.)

 

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Note: Once the project is created, this is where you can keep an eye on your monthly usage of Twitter’s API. Based on the API v2 used by Communalytic, you can collect up to 500k per month.

 

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Step 3: Click on the Project name that you just created in the Dashboard and create a new App. You will need this app to generate a “bearer token” to be used in Communalytic.

 

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Step 4: Select the App that you just created and then click on the Key and Tokens section to generate a new “bearer token”.

 

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Step 5: Copy your “bearer token” that you just generated and save it under My Profile section in Communalytic as shown below.

 

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You can now collect public replies to a given tweet and analyze them using Communalytic! See how in our next tutorial.

PS. If you need more help to setup your Twitter’s developer account, check out the following video tutorial from an unaffiliated developer shared on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TIoQu-tHZs&feature=youtu.be&t=270
The relevant part of this video starts at around 4:30min.