Threads’ API is coming in June

Threads plans to release its API by the end of June after testing it with a limited set of partners, including Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, and Techmeme. The API will let developers build third-party apps for Threads and allow sites to publish directly to the platform.

The API will let users “authenticate, publish threads, and fetch the content they posted through these tools,” according to Threads developer Jesse Chan in a post on the social platform, with more features coming later. 

In a post last October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the team was developing an API while worrying that an API would result in more publisher content on Threads instead of user-created posts.

For years, users have used third-party apps like Hootsuite and Tweetbot to post and interact on social media sites like Twitter or Reddit. But in the past couple of years, several of these sites turned against third-party apps by removing APIs or making them much more expensive, pushing some apps to shut down.

Several of Threads’ competitors, like Bluesky and Mastodon, have embraced third-party apps from the beginning. For example, after X’s API changes forced Tweetbot to shut down, its creators made Ivory, a Tweetbot-like app for Mastodon.