Twitter Follow Checker

An Apify actor that checks the follow relationship between two Twitter users using Twitter's API.

Features

• Check if user A follows user B and vice versa
• Get detailed user information including follower/following counts
• Determine relationship type: mutual, one-way, or none
• Outputs results in structured JSON format

Overview

This actor uses Twitter's API to reliably check follow relationships between users. It requires Twitter cookies for authentication and provides detailed information about both users in addition to their follow status.

Prerequisites

• Apify Account to run the actor
• Twitter cookies for authentication

Usage

Running on Apify Platform

1. Go to the Apify Console
2. Navigate to your Actor
3. Fill in the input form:
   • user_a: First Twitter username (without @)
   • user_b: Second Twitter username (without @)
   • cookies: Twitter cookies in JSON format (see below)
4. Click "Run"

Twitter Cookie Authentication

This actor requires Twitter cookies for authentication. To obtain Twitter cookies:

1. Log in to Twitter in your browser
2. Open Developer Tools (F12 or right-click > Inspect)
3. Go to the Network tab
4. Refresh the page
5. Select any Twitter API request
6. In the Headers tab, find the "Cookie" header
7. Export the cookies as JSON (You can use browser extensions like "Cookie-Editor" for this)

The cookies must include the CSRF token (ct0) and ideally the authentication token (auth_token).

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
user_a	String	First Twitter username (without @)
user_b	String	Second Twitter username (without @)
cookies	String	Twitter cookies in JSON format for authentication

Example input:

{
  "user_a": "elonmusk",
  "user_b": "BarackObama",
  "cookies": "[{\"name\":\"ct0\",\"value\":\"your-csrf-token-here\"},...]"
}

Output Format

The actor outputs JSON with the following structure:

{
  "user_a": "elonmusk",
  "user_b": "BarackObama",
  "user_a_info": {
    "id": "44196397",
    "name": "Elon Musk",
    "followers_count": 180500000,
    "following_count": 538
  },
  "user_b_info": {
    "id": "813286",
    "name": "Barack Obama",
    "followers_count": 133800000,
    "following_count": 576978
  },
  "user_a_follows_user_b": true,
  "user_b_follows_user_a": false,
  "relationship": "one_way_a_to_b"
}

Relationship Types

• mutual: Both users follow each other
• one_way_a_to_b: User A follows User B, but User B doesn't follow User A
• one_way_b_to_a: User B follows User A, but User A doesn't follow User B
• none: Neither user follows the other

How It Works

The actor performs the following steps:

1. Authenticates with Twitter using provided cookies
2. Searches for both users to obtain their user IDs
3. Checks follow relationship using Twitter's friendships/show API
4. Collects detailed information about both users
5. Determines the relationship type
6. Outputs the results

Troubleshooting

Authentication Issues

If you encounter authentication errors:

1. Ensure your Twitter cookies are fresh and valid
2. Verify the cookies include the required ct0 token
3. Check that your Twitter account has API access

Common error messages:

• "Missing CSRF token ('ct0') in the cookies data" - Your cookies are missing the CSRF token
• "Failed to search for user" - Authentication issue or Twitter API changes

User Not Found

If a user can't be found:

1. Double-check the username spelling
2. Verify the user hasn't been suspended or deleted
3. Try using the user's @ handle exactly as it appears on Twitter