Meta-owned social network Threads said today that it will make its API widely available to developers by June.
Engineer Jesse Chen was posted that the company has been building the API for the past few months. The API allows users to authenticate, post threads, and retrieve the content they post through these tools.
“Over the past few months, we’ve built the Threads API to enable creators, developers, and brands to manage their Threads presence at scale and easily share fresh, new ideas with their communities from their favorite third-party apps,” he said.
Chen added that the company works with a limited number of partners, including social networking tools like Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, Hootsuite, tech news board Techmeme, and a few other developers.
The engineer added that Threads is trying to add more features to its APIs for monitoring and information gathering.
Last October, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri first confirmed that the social media platform is working on an API to enable third-party experiences. At the time Chen had added that the company would begin work on one content publishing endpoint. While the social network has added new features to the API, it’s unclear whether this will allow developers to create third-party clients to create a different way of experiencing Threads.
Over the years, social networks have increased restrictions on access to user data for developers. This has stifled the ecosystem of third-party apps for social media platforms.
Decentralized social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon have allowed developers to build new applications. However, they have yet to reach the massive scale of Twitter/X, Reddit, and Meta properties like Facebook and Instagram.
While Meta has committed to adopting the ActivityPub protocol for Threads and joining the fediverse, the company has not been open about allowing developers to create alternative Threads clients.
