Meta-owned social network Threads announced today that it will make its API widely available to developers by June.
Engineer Jesse Chen posted that the company has been building the API for the past few months. Currently, this API allows users to authenticate, publish threads, and retrieve posted content through these tools.
“Over the past few months, we've been building the Threads API to help creators, developers, and brands manage a large Threads presence and easily share fresh, new ideas with their community from their favorite third-party applications. “I did,” he said.
Chen added that the company is working with a limited number of partners, including developers of social tools such as Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, Hootsuite, tech news bulletin board Techmeme, and several others.
The engineer added that Threads is considering adding more features to its API for moderation and insight gathering.
Last October, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed for the first time that the social platform was working on an API to enable third-party experiences. At that point, Chen added, the company will begin developing a content publishing endpoint. The social network has added new features to its API, but it's unclear whether this will allow developers to build third-party clients to create another way to experience Threads.
Over the years, social networks have increasingly restricted access to user data for developers. This crippled the ecosystem of third-party apps built for social platforms.
Decentralized social networks such as Bluesky and Mastodon have enabled developers to create new apps. However, it has not yet reached the massive scale of Meta's assets such as Twitter/X, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram.
Meta is working on adopting the ActivityPub protocol for Threads and joining the Fediverse, but hasn't talked openly about allowing developers to build alternative Threads clients.