Twitter Error "You may only view analytics about your own tweets" [+ How to Fix It for Now!]

Whether you're an influencer, marketer, or nerdy lover of data (all three, anyone?), you may have run across a Twitter glitch lately that denies users access to their own analytics. The error has been blocking tweeters from their performance measures for nearly a month now. If this element is in your toolbox, you might be curious if anyone else has noticed, when it will be fixed, or if Twitter even knows what's going on.

What is the "Tweet Analytics" feature? Why do people use it?

Like most social media platforms, Twitter offers users a glimpse of their insights per post (as well as account-wide monthly recaps and statistics). By tapping the graph icon in the lower right-hand corner of each tweet, a user can see data on how the post performed – how many people did it reach? how many viewers clicked a shared link? amount of media views? how many people visited the profile directly from the content? how many followed the page via that post? Insights offer a variety of resources to a wide array of users.

• Businesses use social media insights to help determine what content resonates with their followers, and thus where to capitalize in order to sell more, establish brand identity, offer more effective customer service, and/or better relate to the target audience.

• Brands and public relations teams utilize analytics to do the same as businesses, but also, especially, to identify collaborators and influencers for campaigns. The publicity agencies and companies they work with can estimate potential future post performance Plugging these numbers into formulas to calculate key data, such as engagement rates, also can help ensure one is working with an authentic presence that can provide a return on investment (not an account filled with bots and vanity metrics).

• Influencers and entrepreneurs can use insights to see which content is performing best (and why, if they know what to look for!). This information can be used as leverage to create increasingly engaging content, snowballing their efforts into more work opportunities.

So what happened to my insights? Are they fixing it?

Long to short: we don't know, but yes!

An extremely useful tool, the severe snag in recent weeks has caused a small uproar, particularly in the marketing community, as well as among artists and entrepreneurs whose livelihoods have come to depend on analyzing patterns and social trajectory to improve reach. Flaws in the feature were first widely reported in the second half of August 2022; users from across the web soon joined forces to investigate and inform one another.

Flaws in the [Tweet Analytics] feature were first reported in late August 2022; users from soon joined forces to investigate.

@streetkidcam. "Are you getting an error message when checking Twitter Analytics? You're not the only one as of 3 days ago!! 🧵👇 Analytics is an important tool to managers to check on the..." 3 September 2022.

@npiombino. "I'm unable to access my twitter analytics. Receiving a message I'm unable to view the analytics of others when I'm clicking non my own postings. it's been [the] last two days." 30 August 2022.

Twitter Support entered the conversation quickly, replying to users who publicly tweeted asking about the error.

@TwitterSupport. "Sorry for the frustration. Our team is aware, and they're looking into this. We'll reach out if we need more info from you." 31 August 2022.

But the response was not seen by many who remained confused in the following weeks (and maybe not by you either, if you're here looking for answers 👀).

Thread: @hannahjacole, @yes_you_suuuuck, @hannahjacole. "Has anyone noticed twitter kinda broken the last few days+? Algorithm off, not seeing friends' posts nor them see mine, can't RT [retweet] some stuff, etc???" No yeah its been really dry too but that might just be me." "No, the analytics aren't even working. Haven't been in nearly a week. Something inside is def off." 4 September 2022.

Thread: @rickster_33, @frankiebwash, @ng_fem, @layney_girl, @Jon_Stone. "Is anyone else having issues viewing their Twitter analytics?" "Yep, I am. I thought I was the only one having this issue." "Me too. What's up with that? It looks like Unless you're the original Tweeter you can't see your analytics? How messed up is that?" "Nope, even on tweets that I'm the original, it still says I can't." "Saw someone else said it's broken for mobile." 1-3 September 2022.

Quick fix, for now!

In the meantime, there is a temporary solution. Twitter Support announced in a witty tweet that while they are addressing the problem, users can still access insights from the logging in via web browsers.

@TwitterSupport. "When we tell you "You may only view analytics about your own Tweets" when that's exactly what you're trying to do 😬 Sorry about that – we're working on fixing Tweet Analytics on iOS. For now, you can check how your Tweets are doing on the web." 1 September 2022.

To confirm, I selected the analytics button to the same tweet of my own, both on the iOS app (iPhone 13, v9.26) and on my MacBook Pro using Safari. The differences verified this work-around:

Going forward...

As of the publishing date, Twitter has just released version of the app, v9.27 in hopes of eliminating the obstacle. However, only two users have reported on this update so far through tweets, and they denied that the setback has been resolved.

@holkev. "Still getting 'You may only view analytics about your own tweet' on iOS even with twitter v9.27. Any TOR?" 10 September 2022.

@BoomerWwii. "Update 6 (September 9, 2022). 05:33 pm (IST): 'Twitter app on iOS has recently received a new update with v9.27. Hence, those affected can install it and see if it resolves the issue with analytics.' *** Installed v9.27 on my iOS did not fix issue‼️🙄 ***". 9 September 2022. Link is attached directing readers to Jean Leon's article about the matter on PiunikaWeb.

At the time of posting, Twitter Support was actively responding to incoming queries about the issue, delivering the same assurance to users that they are "looking into it." So for now, going old-school is the only option to view Tweet Analytics, and Twitter does not know when this will be resolved. (Some users have a theory that data is being censored due to election season beginning in the United States last week, but that's another can of worms.)

What do you think? Have you faced this trouble, or found creative alternative solutions? Or discovered another concern that needs investigating? Let us know here, or directly on Twitter, @hannahjacole.