Instagram head Adam Mosseri said today that a Threads API is in the works. This will give developers the opportunity to create different applications and experiences around Threads.
Mosseri was responding to journalist Casey Newton, who was chatting with a user about a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads. The head of Instagram expressed concern about publishers publishing a large amount of content and, in turn, overshadowing creators’ content.
“We’re working on it. My concern is that this means a lot more content for publishers and not a lot more content for creators, but it still seems like something we have to do,” Mosseri said in a publication.
The threads have taken a stance on the news content saying that it is not “anti-news” but that it “will not actively amplify the news.” Historically, news publications have relied on third-party tools and integrations with different social networks to automatically publish to platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. With the lack of API availability on newer platforms like Threads, editors have to manually publish content, which is not ideal for news organizations that publish a large number of articles per day.
While Mosseri is concerned that publishers are pushing an overwhelming amount of content through API integration, creators also need different tools to publish various content formats. It makes it easier for developers to create features suitable for a platform if there is an API integration.
Since social networks like Twitter (now X) and Reddit make it difficult for third-party developers to create clients, Threads can open its API to a healthy app ecosystem. The developers have created some clients for rival networks such as Bluesky and Mastodon. However, both networks have a comparatively smaller user base than Threads.
Earlier this week, Meta said Threads has just under 100 million monthly active users. An API and ecosystem of third-party apps won’t necessarily increase that number, but they will provide ways for people to explore the web in alternative ways. The Threads teams have released many features in the past few months post-launch. However, if there is an ecosystem of third-party apps, developers can utilize various ship features that users are looking for.
What’s more, Meta and Mosseri have talked about integrating Threads with Fedisverse. Therefore, an open ecosystem with a well-maintained API would be a good step towards achieving that goal.