New way to access X (Twitter) Data: NodeXL Pro v.565 Introduces a New Apify-Powered Importer

The Social Media Research Foundation is pleased to announce the release of NodeXL Pro version 565, a milestone update that provides researchers a new way to access X (formerly Twitter) data through a newly developed Apify-powered importer. This release reflects our continued commitment to sustaining the empirical study of public conversation, and to ensuring that the tools necessary for that work remain within reach of the academic and civic communities that depend on them.

For those who have followed the trajectory of social media data access over the past several years, the significance of this development requires little elaboration. The contraction of API availability, coupled with substantial increases in cost, has presented a genuine obstacle to scholarship, journalism, and public-interest research. With version 565, NodeXL Pro reopens a path that many had been forced to abandon.

Why Continued Access to X Data Matters

X remains one of the most consequential venues for the formation, dispute, and circulation of public discourse. For more than a decade, data drawn from the platform has informed work across a range of disciplines and applications, including:

• Social network analysis and the mapping of conversational structures
• Academic research in communication, sociology, political science, and information studies
• The examination of public opinion, emerging trends, and movement dynamics
• Media analysis, crisis communication research, and the study of information ecosystems

When access to such data becomes prohibitively expensive or technically inaccessible, the cost is borne not only by individual researchers but by the broader project of understanding how societies communicate. The Apify-based importer in NodeXL Pro v.565 is intended as a practical answer to that constraint, offering an affordable and dependable means of resuming this essential line of inquiry.

What Version 565 Introduces

The principal feature of this release is the Apify X (Twitter) Importer, integrated directly into NodeXL Pro and accessible through the familiar Import menu. Researchers may now collect network data from X using three primary entry points:

• Hashtags, for the study of topic-centered conversations
• Keywords and search queries, for thematic and event-based analysis
• User timelines, for the examination of individual actors and their networks

NodeXL Pro then transforms the retrieved data into a structured network graph, generating nodes that represent users or posts, edges that capture the relationships among them, and the associated content and metadata required for substantive analysis. The resulting dataset is immediately available for visualization, statistical examination, and reporting within the same workbook environment that has long defined the NodeXL workflow.

A Note on Apify

For readers unfamiliar with the platform, Apify is a widely used web data infrastructure that provides modular collection tools, referred to as “actors,” capable of retrieving information from a broad range of websites and social media services. By integrating Apify, NodeXL Pro gains a flexible and forward-looking foundation for data acquisition, one that does not depend exclusively on official platform APIs and is therefore better positioned to adapt as the wider data landscape continues to evolve.

A Generic Architecture, Designed for Expansion

While the X importer is the headline feature of v.565, the underlying architecture has been deliberately constructed as a generic Apify importer rather than a single-purpose tool. The implication is significant: the same framework can be extended to support additional data sources without requiring fundamental changes to the platform.

Forthcoming additions are expected to include:

• Additional social networks
• Video-centered platforms
• Online forums and discussion communities
• Review sites and other domains of public commentary

For researchers who have long sought a more diversified data foundation, particularly in light of the challenges associated with single-platform dependence, this generic architecture represents a meaningful structural improvement.

Deployment and Availability

Existing NodeXL Pro users will receive version 565 automatically the next time the application is launched; no manual intervention is required. Once the update has been applied, the new X (Apify) option will appear in the Import menu alongside the other data sources.

Researchers and institutions not yet using NodeXL Pro may learn more and obtain the software at the NodeXL shop, with separate licenses available for academic and nonprofit, student, and commercial users.

Inviting Your Feedback

The Social Media Research Foundation has always regarded the NodeXL community as a partner in the development of the software. We welcome your reflections on this release, and in particular we are interested in hearing about:

• The platforms you would most value seeing supported next
• The ways in which X data is informing your current research
• The studies, projects, or initiatives you are presently advancing

Correspondence may be directed to the Foundation at any time. We look forward to seeing what the renewed availability of X data, together with the broader expansion that this architecture makes possible, will enable across the field.