Do you think
mobile app development
needs API support for flexible, light weight and robust application
development? If you don`t have any idea about it then you are at the
right place to be aware about the truth and hidden scenes.
APIs, or “Application Programming
Interfaces”, have revolutionized the way that we use web and mobile
applications by allowing computer programs to talk to each other.
Because of this revolution, software development and innovation has
periodically sped-up over the last 10 years and apps get integrated and
communicated in an amazing new ways.
What is an API?
We use our PCs, laptops, mobile phones
and tablets very day to communicate with our friends, family and
colleagues. But how do computer programs communicate with each other?
Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) are the hidden backbone of
our modern world which allow software programs to communicate with one
another. Although most of us don’t know it, behind the scenes of every
mobile app and website we use is a mesh of computers “talking” to each
other through a series of
APIs. As you see in figure, every mobile and
digital watch make use of APIs to run their native applications by
making a request to web server for getting app relevant data. And web
server will send a response of that request via API response. So it
makes each mobile app works smoothly without getting heavy.
Today,
the “API economy” is quickly changing how the world interacts.
Everything from photo sharing, to online shopping, to hire a cab is
happening through APIs. Because of APIs, technical innovation is
happening at a faster pace than ever. If you already write software, you
are probably familiar with APIs. But the rest of you may be wondering: what exactly are APIs and why are they so important?
APIs: A Software Backbone
Michael Bock has said
in its blog that at the most basic level, an API is a set of rules that
dictate how one application communicates with another. APIs aren’t that
new either; as written in “What APIs are and Why they`re Important”,
APIs were just a way of building applications for a desktop operating
system like Microsoft Windows. But in the age of the internet, they have
the power to plug applications into, well, almost anything. They’ve
already transformed websites like Google and Facebook and Twitter into
services that talk to a world of other applications, across PCs as well
as mobile phones. But that’s small potatoes. They’re also breathing new
life into old-world operations, including mobile carriers and even auto
makers.
On the Web, APIs make it possib
le for
big services like Google Maps or Facebook to let other apps “piggyback”
on their offerings. Think about the way Yelp, for instance, displays
nearby restaurants on a Google Map in its app, or the way some video
games now let players chat, post high scores and invite friends to play via Facebook, right there in the middle of a game.
APIs do all this by “exposing” some of a
program’s internal functions to the outside world in a limited fashion.
That makes it possible for applications to share data and take actions
on one another’s behalf without requiring developers to share all of
their software’s code. Sharing code at that scale would be massively
inefficient in addition to posing major security threats. APIs allow for
this type of integration without sharing the actual code that makes the
software run. APIs are useful even for open-source software (where the
code is freely and publicly available): most developers don’t have the
time or patience to look through thousands of lines of code just to use
one piece of functionality. Instead, that functionality can be offered
through an API.
Without APIs, applications would be
incredibly disconnected and therefore confusing. APIs allow applications
to talk to each other and for more innovative and consistent
applications to get built. Imagine, for example, if Google Maps didn’t
offer an API: every mobile application and website on the internet would
have to figure out how to implement their own mapping system from
scratch, an incredibly difficult task. APIs can also be useful
internally for a company in addition to sharing resources across
companies. Instead of having to duplicate code for each of other apps,
they can share data via one API. APIs simplify much of the complexity of
software development by limiting outside access to a specific subset of
functionality — usually data exchange. Because of this, new software
can often be built in weeks instead of months or years.
Why APIs are so important?
These days, APIs are especially
important because they dictate how developers can create new apps that
tap into big Web services—social networks like Facebook or Pinterest,
for instance, or utilities like Google Maps or Dropbox. The developer of
a game app, for instance, can use the Dropbox API to let users store
their saved games in the Dropbox cloud instead of working out some other
cloud-storage option from scratch.
In one sense, then, APIs are great time
savers. They also offer user convenience in many cases; Facebook users
undoubtedly appreciate the ability to sign into many apps and Web sites
using their Facebook ID—a feature that relies upon Facebook APIs to
work.
When you search for nearby
restaurants in the Yelp app for Android, for instance, it will plot
their locations on Google Maps instead of creating its own maps. Via the
Google Maps API, the
Yelp app passes the information it wants plotted—restaurant addresses,
say, along with the Yelp star rating and more—to an internal Google Maps
function that then returns a Map object with restaurant pins in it at
the proper locations. Which Yelp can then display inside its app. (On
iOS, Yelp taps Apple’s Maps API for the same purpose.)
We see APIs like this all the time.
Elsewhere on page you may see the icons to share anything on Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube. These are just links that call on
the APIs associated with each of those services to allow users to Tweet
or post about the thing you want to share without leaving the site
itself. Mobile devices like
iOS and
Android
phones and tablets have many built-in APIs. For example, Apple
recently announced a new API called “HealthKit” as part of iOS 8 that
allows developers to access a user’s health data from a a central place.
An API is a Promise
A major issue with APIs is that they aren’t necessarily permanent.
Just because a company is making an API available now doesn’t
necessarily mean it will be available tomorrow. Twitter infamously
limited third-party access to its API at the end of 2012. This had the
effect of killing all alternative Twitter clients and forcing users to
use Twitter’s official apps and website, where Twitter can show users
ads as it pleases. This was done under the guise of providing a more
cohesive user experience, but for many developers who relied on the
Twitter API, it meant shutting down their business because of Twitter’s
decision.
Other examples of this API abandonment are common. Startups that
provide an API often shut down or get acquired, and Google is notorious
for closing down services that people rely on like Google Reader (that
allowed people to aggregate all the news services they read into one
place). Since web APIs are still in their infancy, there is still a lot
to learn. One of the things API providers should understand is that an
API is a promise: once other people are relying on it, it is crucial
maintain it and keep it active.
APIs and Innovation
The good news is that for the most part, APIs encourage innovation
and don’t stifle it. Without APIs, communication between apps would be
stifled, software developers would continuously be re-writing software
that performed the same functionality, and generally innovation would
slow. APIs have allowed for more trivial things like sharing photos with
friends, but also for the potential to re-imagine government. As the
world moves further and further into the technical revolution, APIs will
have an even bigger role powering the apps and websites we use every
day.
Power your mobile apps with APIs
We have an experience
API developers in our team. If you want to
hire a trusted API developer to develop APIs for your mobile apps , we will gladly assist you to reach to your dream! We provide a
full-stack development team to create a valuable product. Just drop us an email at
hello@stepinsolutions.in
AUTHOR:-
Stepin Solutions are Technology solution provider who can serve you with Web and Mobile App development. We are expert in PHP Software Development, Ecommerce Solutions, Drupal Development, Magento Web Development Company, ios app development, android app development, API Development, Symfony Development, Agile Solutions, iPhone and Android App development.
