Threads, the social network owned by Meta, announced today that it plans to release its API for developers by June. According to engineer Jesse Chen, the company has been working on this API for several months, with its current capabilities including authentication, thread publishing, and content fetching.
“Over the past few months, we’ve been building 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 applications,” Chen stated.
Currently, Threads is only working with a limited number of partners, including social tools like Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, Hootsuite, tech news board Techmeme, and a few other developers. However, Chen noted that the company is looking to expand the API’s capabilities to include moderation and insights gathering.
Last October, Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri confirmed that the platform was in the works for an API that would allow for third-party experiences. At that time, Chen also mentioned plans for a content publishing endpoint. While the API has seen updates since then, it is unclear if developers will be able to build third-party clients to provide a new way for users to experience Threads.
Unfortunately, social networks have increasingly restricted access to user data for developers, hindering the growth of the third-party app ecosystem built around them. While decentralized social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon have allowed for the creation of new apps, they have yet to reach the massive scale of popular platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Meta’s own properties, including Facebook and Instagram.
Despite Meta’s commitment to adopting ActivityPub protocol for Threads and joining the fediverse, the company has not openly discussed the possibility of allowing developers to build alternative Threads clients. As June approaches, we can look forward to seeing how this API release may impact the development and user experience of Threads.