Today, Twitter is trying to reset developer relations yet again with the unveiling of its vision<\/a> for the Twitter API platform and, for the first time, publishing its public roadmap<\/a> of what it has planned.<\/p>\n The apparent goal here is to be more transparent about what Twitter has in store for developers, which includes a unification of its API platform along with\u00a0the launching of new APIs and endpoints for developers.<\/p>\n To begin, Twitter is finally taking fully advantage of its investment in Gnip.<\/p>\n Gnip, a longtime Twitter partner and social data provider,\u00a0was acquired by Twitter back in 2014<\/a>. The goal was to build out Twitter\u2019s\u00a0in-house big data analytics team and establish direct data relationships with the\u00a0big businesses who build on top of Twitter\u2019s data and platform.<\/p>\n The acquisition, however, divided the developer base into different classes. Most\u00a0developers continue to utilize the standard REST and real-time streaming APIs that have been around since 2006. Meanwhile, larger software companies could take advantage of Gnip\u2019s enterprise-grade APIs to do more with Twitter data.<\/p>\n Gnip\u2019s APIs let developers\u00a0tap into the \u201cFirehose\u201d (the unfiltered, full stream of tweets and all their metadata), and offer more functionality than the REST and streaming APIs. But\u00a0they\u2019re also priced for an enterprise audience. That kept developers who were only beginning\u00a0to scale from being able to afford access.<\/p>\n Twitter says it heard developers complaints about this, and will address the problem later this year by combining its\u00a0REST and streaming APIs with Gnip. The goal is to create an integrated Twitter API platform that all developers \u2013 from indie app makers to large enterprise \u2013 can use.<\/p>\n The APIs will be streamlined, so developers won\u2019t have to deal with different access points and delivery protocols as they scale, explains Twitter.<\/p>\n \u201cThis means one API for filtering data from the Firehose; one API for searching the Twitter archive; one API for getting realtime activities related to an account \u2014 including Tweets, Direct Messages, Likes Follows,\u201d writes\u00a0Andy Piper, Staff Developer Advocate, in a blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to this simplification, Twitter will later this year introduce new tiers of access, including free access for testing new ideas, self-serve, paid access for increased functionality as the developer begins scaling, and finally enterprise access for Twitter\u2019s strategic partners.<\/p>\n Twitter says it will be clear about the features and costs available at each level, as well, but did not announce pricing. (It will later this year, we\u2019re told).<\/p>\n Twitter will also introduce new APIs aimed at developers building business solutions \u2013 specifically those that could cater to areas of Twitter\u2019s own business it wants to further invest in: customer service, bots, and brand engagements.<\/p>\n This includes the\u00a0launch of APIs <\/a>for developers building solutions on top of Twitter\u2019s data \u2013 like those that help businesses understand which products to build and how to market them, as well as better understand their customers and what they think.<\/p>\n Along with this, Twitter is today adding a\u00a0new Account Activity API<\/a> and new endpoints<\/a>, detailed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n These are focused on opening up Twitter\u2019s Direct Messages to allow developers to build things like customer service apps, chatbots or other tools for businesses that want to chat with customers. They include support for newer Twitter features like welcome messages<\/a> in Direct Messages and automated Quick Replies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Twitter is\u00a0also showing off a couple of features still in private beta in the hopes of developer feedback \u2013 custom profiles that businesses can use to override their default avatar so customers can see a photo of the human agent or bot<\/a>\u00a0they\u2019re chatting with on DM, and \u201cCustomer Feedback Cards\u201d for businesses to collect feedback on the customer service experience they offered.<\/p>\n Twitter additionally detailed its plans for a new Search API that offers free access to a 7-day \u201clookback window\u201d offering more sophisticated query capabilities and higher fidelity data retrieval that what\u2019s available today.<\/p>\n Finally, Twitter\u00a0updated its\u00a0automation rules to guide chatbot developers; announced plans to replace User Streams and Site Streams with the new Account Activity API; and announced a plan to replace several endpoints (public statuses\/filter, statuses\/sample, and search\/tweets) with a streamlined API that provides increased access when rate limits are reached.<\/p>\n Most importantly, perhaps, Twitter for the first time has\u00a0published its API platform roadmap <\/a>through early 2018. This details what is in the works, when things are planned, and what\u2019s in store for the future.<\/p>\n The investment Twitter is making here \u2013 streamlining and unifying its API platform to allow developers to scale \u2013 is significant. But the company\u2019s troubled past with developers could still haunt it, despite these changes.<\/p>\n Twitter has before shafted its own partners<\/a> and pulled out the rug from under developers\u2019 feet<\/a>, to reflect the company\u2019s own, ever-changing interests as it tries to figure out where it can extract revenue from its platform. Offering its roadmap and increased transparency may help to soothe some concerns, but with Twitter\u2019s own future<\/a>\u00a0continually\u00a0uncertain<\/a>, it\u2019s not clear how many developers will take up the charge.<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tFeatured Image: Bryce Durbin\/TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunchIt\/~3\/N3mF7YVXKwU\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twitter historically has had\u00a0a rocky relationship with its developer community. It once encouraged third-party apps, then later restricting them; hosting\u00a0developer conferences, then killing them; debuting a suite of\u00a0developer tools, then <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enterprise-software","tag-enterprise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tStreamlining the API platform<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/6d470_twitter-developer-alt.jpg?resize=640%2C275&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nTiered access and new APIs for data and DMs<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nNew roadmap and rules<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n