Can you imagine just how much time you would waste on building an app or a website in today’s day and age without using any APIs in the process? No matter how “old school” you are, you definitely have used APIs before and you’ll probably continue doing so in the future.
On the other hand, if you’re just a newbie, you are probably just confused with the amount of APIs available out there. If you have never used them before, you probably will have problems finding your way around hosted documentation, let alone finding the right API for your needs and implementing it.
In order to help you understand how you can use APIs for social media, we’re going to take a look at some of the most-widely used APIs on the market today like social media api. We are going to take a look at some of their main functions and tell you how you can use them to make your app better.
Google Contacts API
Released back in 2015, this API is available for both Android and web applications. The Google Contacts API allows the developers to build the application that allows people to use Google contacts freely. It’s great if you want to increase the number of users in a short period of time.
By using it, you allow your users to import their Google Contacts and add them as contacts. OAuth 2.0 handles the requests for importing the contacts into the app. The pop-up messages inform the user that the app wants to access their Google Contact list. The API allows users to import their photographs as well.
Slack API
The ever-popular Slack has a cloud-based API, which can be used communication and collaboration. Released in 2013, by the GitHub, the API is written in the Electron framework, which consists of C++, JavaScript, Python, etc.
The best thing about this API is that it allows you to bring together messages, files, and posts from various other applications. Your users will surely enjoy having access to all of those files from your dashboard.
The second best thing about it, however, is that it’s available in on almost all known platforms, including, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Windows Phone.
Twitter Stream API
This API is a part of the Twitter social media API package, but we’re going to talk about it separately. Covering all of the functions of the Twitter API would take ages.
Now, as it name suggests, the main function of this API is to give you access to your Twitter stream and allow you to display it for your users. Developers can also develop their own bots that will repost the Tweets to the websites they want.
This function is especially important for informative apps and websites that want to keep their users and visitors up-to-date on latest happenings.
Amazon’s Product Advertising API
Chances are, you probably heard about this API, since it’s pretty popular among younger developers. The Product Advertising will give you access to Amazon`s product catalog data. You can access this catalog with the SOAP and REST protocols.
By doing that, you can sell or list some of the items from Amazon`s catalog to 3rd-parties. In addition to its e-commerce possibilities, it’s also great if you want to boost your business reputation. If you’re selling a product on Amazon, for example, this API allows you to display product reviews and user ratings your customers left on your product page on Amazon.
NASA API
It seems like there are not enough people who know that NASA has more than a few of its own APIs. NASA APIs are the most exotic one on this list. These APIs give you access to some of NASA`s most interesting data, including some great outer space images and even upgrade your interface.
But that’s definitely not all, there are tons of different things you can do with NASA’s public API. If you feel experimental, here’s a list of its endpoints, if you feel like experimenting.
Bottom-Line
As you see, we went over some of the best APIs that can help you with your API development endeavors. All of these are sure to help you with the design process, depending on the needs of your system. You can use these APIs to improve your business app, or you can simply use them mess around while sharpening your development skills.
Basically, no matter what your interests are, this list has something for you. Therefore, make sure to check some of these apps out and spend a few minutes going through their documentation to see how they can be implemented.
Of course, the list will hopefully narrow the choices for some of the developers and help them in getting the job done, as fast as possible.
We hope that you enjoyed our article and that you found it useful. As always, if you have anything to add or if you simply have a question concerning the APIs we presented, simply leave a comment in the comment section below and we’ll get back at you as soon as possible.
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