• by Colin Kirkland , October 30, 2023

Over the weekend, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that Meta’s microblogging app Threads -- a direct competitor of X -- is working on its own application programming interface, or API.

This will allow developers to create new apps, experiences and direct posting options around Threads, and will allow publishers to automate certain tasks like scheduling posts.

Mosseri was prompted by journalist Casey Newton, who was posting about Threads’ lack of a TweetDeck-like feature. To develop that type of offering, Newton noted, Threads would need its own API.

“We're working on it,” Mosseri posted in response to Newton, confirming that an API is being developed.

However, Mosseri also shared his worries about how an API would affect the emerging app.

“My concern is that it will mean a lot more publisher content and not much more creator content, but it still seems like something we need to get done,” he said.

“We focus on creators because they tend to drive more engagement and cultural relevance, they have an outsized influence on public perception, and we believe they’ll become more important over time as power continues to shift from institutions to individuals across industries,” Mosseri continued in a separate post. “There are more than enough amazing communities -- sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc -- to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.”

Dating back to the app’s initial launch in July, Mosseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have expressed their distaste for hard news, politics and X’s (formerly Twitter) alleged focus on stoking engagement through divisive news-oriented conversation with regard to the platform.

While Mosseri has claimed that Threads isn't “anti-news,” he has made it clear that the app wasn't designed to “actively amplify news.”

Right now, new publishers must post manually on Threads, making it difficult to amplify breaking content in real time.

But with the emergence of third-party tools and integrations within Threads via an API, publishers will be able to post automatically to the app, which will make it easier for all types of publishers and creators to reach Threads users, but may the original “good vibes” vision of Mosseri and Zuckerberg.

So far, Threads' major feature-releases all resemble X's, such as a trending topics list, polls and an edit button.

However, the app is beginning to diversify itself from its competitor. The edit button, for example, is free to Threads users, whereas it is a subscriber-only offering on X.

An API would also set Threads apart, as X officially banned third-party clients last January.

Unlike X -- which has suffered a massive drop in audience and user engagement -- Threads' user numbers are up. Last week, in his Q3 earnings call with investors, Zuckerberg mentioned that Threads has retained 100 million active users with many more features to come.