Twitter is now ramping up to launch a new API that will reportedly be more developer-friendly for third-party apps. The API will be cleaner, completely rebuilt from the ground up, and focused on providing devs an easier-to-use experience. Conversation threading, poll results, pinned tweets, spam filtering, and better stream filtering are all a part of the new API. And so is better search query language support.
The company also plans to launch an expansion to the tiers of access it has on offer. That will include new options over top of the three that currently exist — from free to premium and enterprise. The purpose of that, Twitter says, is to provide developers with elevated access and growth options within the same API. And new product tracks will help developers meet the needs of their users better.
This new Twitter API could potentially fix third-party app problems
Historically, Twitter has kept its API fairly locked down, particularly as that pertains to third-party apps. Updates have, at various points, removed core features, functionality, or even third-party developer tools in their entirety. In other cases, it has severely limited the number of users a third-party Twitter client can host.
Twitter has also claimed it would restore those at various points. And that undoubtedly makes it difficult for some developers to trust the company. And it remains to be seen whether it will rectify the situation with this API update.
If so, this update could go a long way toward making some of the best Android apps for Twitter even better.
This is coming “soon” but maybe not as soon as might be hoped
Now, this updated API had been listed as coming “soon” for developers of Twitter experiences and third-party apps. The initial launch will be available across all levels of the API. And they chiefly center around data and conversation analysis. To that end, the new ‘endpoints’ for developers will start with the ability to stream Tweets in real-time. Alongside that, Twitter says the change will also allow the analysis of past conversations. That will allow a better understanding of public conversations on the platform or to help businesses discover customer insights.
API endpoints centered around measuring Twitter performance and listeners for important events are part of that too. And “a whole lot more” are being added at the same time, Twitter says.
But none of that will necessarily arrive soon. Because of the widely-reported recent “security incident” at Twitter though, the release has been delayed. That’s according to an update on the initial announcement of the incoming API.