Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on June 18 announced the broad availability of the Threads API, which will enable third-party developers to build tools that can extend the functionality of the platform, designed to compete with Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter.
"The Threads API is now widely available, and coming to more of you soon," Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads.
The launch comes months after Meta started testing the Threads’ Application Programming Interface (API) with select partners such as Grabyo, Hootsuite, Social News Desk, Sprinklr, Sprout Social and Techmeme in March.
At the time, the company had said the API would enable creators, developers and brands to build their own unique integrations, manage their Threads presence at scale, and share content with their communities.
In a blogpost on June 18, Threads' director of engineering Jesse Chen said the new API will enable developers to publish posts, fetch their content and make use of the company's reply management capabilities to set reply and quote controls, retrieve replies to their posts, hide, unhide or respond to specific replies.
"Insights are one of our top requested features for the API, so we are making it possible for people to see key metrics: the number of views, likes, replies, reposts, and quotes at media and account level, and the number of followers as well as follower demographics for your account," Chen said.
The social networking giant also made available a sample open-source Threads API app on GitHub, which the company said, can serve as a practical guide for developers.
In April, Zuckerberg said Threads had more than 150 million monthly active users, up from 130 million in February and about 100 million users in October 2023.
Elina Vilk, chief marketing officer, Hootsuite, said in a statement, "Threads is a fast-growing network that reflects where social is headed, and the capabilities that this API integration makes possible for our customers is taking Hootsuite’s mission of unlocking social relationships to a new level."
Sprout Social president Ryan Barretto said the company collaborated closely with the Meta product teams on the development and implementation of the Threads API.
"As a result of our partnership, we enabled Threads for all 30,000+ Sprout Social customers on day one; and we’re thrilled to give our customers the platform to continue to grow their business and build genuine connections on Threads," he said.
In May, Threads rolled out a new TweetDeck-like interface with pinned columns to all its web users, as part of the efforts to attract more power users. This interface lets users pin separate columns for their favourite searches, tags, accounts, saved posts, and notifications.
These launches come after Twitter abruptly stopped offering developers free access to its API in February 2023 and introduced new paid APIs at up to $42,000 a month.
It led to many companies, including Microsoft and Sony, pulling back their Twitter/X integrations and some firms even shut down third-party clients over the past year.
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