In order to help developers in building more and more applications on its platform, Twitter has announced a unified API program, which is predicted to be an outcome of the feedback the company received during last year’s #HelloWorld tour. Apart from adding new updates and improvements with the APIs, Twitter has also unveiled its roadmap for 2017 so that developers may remain aware of the upcoming improvements as well.
Twitter’s staff developer advocate Andy Piper wrote in a blog post:
One of the most common requests we hear from developers is for an easy and predictable way to smoothly scale access to Twitter’s APIs.
The developers generally have access to standard REST and streaming APIs, however, Gnip, the company Twitter acquired n 2014, is the main source that fuels the developing system. Twitter is planning to to launch a “new developer experience” which easily blends the abilities of REST and streaming APIs with Gnip.
Piper said:
The goal is to create an integrated Twitter API platform that serves everyone, from an individual developer testing a new idea to Twitter’s largest enterprise partners.
Therefore, from now on, there will be independent APIs to to access Twitter firehose and tweet archive along with receiving real time account activities like tweets, direct messages, likes, and follows.
Twitter will also introduce new tires for gaining access in form of a a self serve, paid tier which will have higher paid limits along with unrevealed functional advantages and an enterprise-level plan for the strategists. There is also a free program for developers needing access to develop or test new products. No costs have been revealed yet, however, company has said that they will “clearly define” the costs and reach of each tier.
The upgraded experience for the platform will not be available for now, but from this very day, the developers may avail following features;
- An Account Activity API in beta which tracks real time activities around individual accounts- this API will later be updated to include @mentions, retweets, likes, follows along with an enterprise feature to sustain large-scale access.
- Support to quick replies through webhooks, along with fresh endpoints to send or receive direct messages.
- Endpoints for Welcome message which is improvised within direct message and is delivered through webhooks.
As soon as the new products come in action, the older ones will be called back, however, Twitter will “provide at least a six-month migration window” after the new functionalities come in beta.
We see a huge opportunity for businesses to harness the power of Twitter in all aspects of their operations — from responding to customer needs and creating delightful customer experiences to identifying emerging trends, making better products, and more. By supporting developers who are building to address unique business needs, we’ll create new sources of revenue and a better experience for everyone. The value created through these efforts is ultimately good for anyone building on our platform, as it will fund the investments that will support the innovations of tomorrow.
