Python Tweepy – Getting the source of a tweet

In this article we will see how we can get the source of a status/tweet. The source of the tweet tells us how the tweet was posted. Some examples of sources are :

• Twitter for Android
• Twitter for iPhone
• Twitter Web App

The source attribute of the Status object provides us with the source of the status.

Identifying the source of the status in the GUI :

In the above mentioned status, the source of the status is : Twitter for Android

In order to get the source of the status, we have to do the following :

1. Identify the status ID of the status from the GUI.
2. Get the Status object of the status using the get_status() method with the status ID.
3. From this object, fetch the source attribute present in it.

Example 1 : Consider the following status :

We will use the status ID to fetch the status. The status ID of the above mentioned status is 1272771459249844224.

# import the module
import tweepy

# assign the values accordingly
consumer_key = ""
consumer_secret = ""
access_token = ""
access_token_secret = ""

# authorization of consumer key and consumer secret
auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)

# set access to user's access key and access secret
auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret)

# calling the api
api = tweepy.API(auth)

# the ID of the status
id = 1272771459249844224

# fetching the status
status = api.get_status(id)

# fetching the source attribute
source = status.source

print("The source of the status is : " + source)

Output :

The source of the status is : Twitter for Android

Example 2 : Consider the following status :

We will use the status ID to fetch the status. The status ID of the above mentioned status is 1273112322773581824.

# the ID of the status
id = 1273112322773581824

# fetching the status
status = api.get_status(id

# fetching the source attribute
source = status.source

print("The source of the status is : " + source)

Output :

The source of the status is : Twitter Web App