Twitter makes it easier for third-party companies, academics and developers to build on its platform with the launch of its API v2 today. The company announced the new API last month, but when the news arrived the day after it was hit by one of the most devastating hacks in the history of social media, it decided to delay the launch. Notably, Twitter presents the API v2 not only as a way to deliver new features faster, but as something of a reset in its long and hurtful relationship with the app’s developer community.
The API v2 is the first complete redesign of Twitter’s API since 2012, when the company famously began limiting how third-party developers could build on their product. Before, outside developers could more or less replicate and customize the Twitter experience within their own clients. But as Twitter became more focused on its advertising business, it apparently decided it did not want to split its user base. It gradually began expanding third-party devs, blocking them from new features such as interviews and group DMs, and redirecting users to the company’s own apps. Companies were killed and developers were not happy.
Now, however, Twitter is trying to rebuild some of these bridges. The API v2 provides third-party developers with access to features that are no longer absent from their clients, including “chat steps, query results in tweets, fixed profile tweets, spam filtering, and more powerful stream filtering and search query language.” There is also access to a real-time tweet stream, instead of forcing third parties to wait before serving new tweets.
This should mean that, following the launch of the API v2, third-party Twitter clients such as Tweetbot and Twitterrific could start with this integration, although there are some caveats.
The great thing is that Twitter is reorganizing its API access along three levels. Only the current, free level is launched today, and that has limits to how many API call developers can make (aka, how often their software can ping Twitter for data). The next level of access, which Twitter calls “elevated,” will not have the same limitations, but it will cost users, and Twitter has not yet announced pricing. However, the company says it expects 80 percent of the developers on its platform to meet their needs by the base tier.
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Before the details are shared, it is difficult to say what changes will happen to third-party clients, says Ged Maheux, co-founder of the parent company Twitterific Iconfactory. The edge. He says the new API is “potentially very good for third-party Twitter customers”, but that Iconfactory takes a “wait and see” approach until they know details, especially pricing.
But Maheux says he and his colleagues are also impressed by Twitter’s compelling approach to developers. “In recent years, Twitter has not been great and they know it. But they fully recognize and recognize it, ”he says. “After being a third or fourth class citizen with Twitter for so long, it’s refreshing.”
However, the new API is about more than just third-party Twitter customers. A wide range of businesses and services depends on access to Twitter data, including analytics companies like Spiketrap and Social Market Analytics, one-time bots like the House of Lords Hansard bot en Emoji Mashup bot, and tools for power users like TweetDelete, Block Party, and Tokimeki Unfollow. Twitter also provides an incredibly rich source of data for academics studying large-scale social trends. Researchers use Twitter’s API for a variety of purposes, from measuring flood levels of tweets to tracking the spread of online hate speech.
Twitter says it wants to encourage more of these types of applications by making their API ecosystem more accessible. A new onboarding wizard, for example, reduces the number of fields that third parties have to fill in to get their hands on API keys from 10 to just one, while new search tools to find supporting documentation and a new centralized support page will make it easier for developers to find help when they need it.
While Twitter’s Alyssa Reese posted it in a blog post about the changes: ‘You see, we want developers to get moon-eye when they talk about our documentation. Having error messages that are so helpful, they are almost as enjoyable as getting a handwritten letter in the mail. Our goal is to be a company that references other developer platforms as they seek inspiration (and we know we need a way). “
Associating API access should also help users. Previously, Twitter’s API was divided into three platforms: standard (free), premium (self-paid) and enterprise (custom-paid). But as Twitter itself claims, migration between these tigers was “reduced.” The new API replaces these tiers with “product tracks” in one platform, with these products then split into the different tiers of access described above.
While the API v2 is undoubtedly a big launch for Twitter, the company claims that it is a work in progress. It calls the current phase “early access” to highlight the evolving nature of the API, and it encourages developers to look over its new public roadmap and offer their thoughts on upcoming features. Twitter then recognizes that repairing any troubled relationship begins with a conversation.
