- Mark Zuckerberg has posted that the Threads API is being made available to all developers.
- The API went into development late last year, and was made available in closed beta.
- With the new API, developers can do things like create reply management tools for the platform.
There is an important announcement from Threads, the Meta-owned social media platform that quickly released following the first fallout from X (formerly Twitter), as its API is now being made available to developers.
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the news via a post on… Threads.
He simply stated that, “The Threads API is now widely available, and coming to more of you soon,” serving up no further information or explaining why the announcement is significant.
Post by @zuckView on Threads
Thankfully Threads engineer, Jesse Chen, was able to offer up a bit more information, per TechCrunch.
They explained that with the new API, developers will be able to publish posts, fetch their own content, as well as deploy reply management tools. More specifically this will allow developers to let users hide/unhide or respond to specific replies, which are features that have been highly requested on the platform.
Added to this will be the ability to gain access to analytics for metrics like the number of views, likes, replies, reposts, and quotes at a media and account level.
These are all features that have been sorely lacking from Threads ever since it was launched to much frenzy last year. In the months since it has been a little lacklustre in terms of features and functionality, but that should now change as the API is being rolled out to a far wider community of developers.
Previously it was only accessible via closed beta, but as we have seen with the likes of X, using the API as a rod to beat developers and third-party app makers is not a winning strategy.
It remains to be seen what kind of interest this latest announcement will yield, but at least Meta is acutely aware of th role developers play in creating a thriving ecosystem, especially as many are still looking for a viable alternative to X, which is seemingly getting worse with each passing month.
