What exactly is an API? (Part 2)
We’ll be concluding our discussion on APIs with attention to why businesses use them, and some commonly used ones as well.
Why do businesses need APIs?
In a lot of cases, businesses are trying to speed up time to deliver new features or products, while innovating and iterating. There’s not enough time to reinvent the wheel, so one key benefit of APIs is their integration.
A company or a business can make use of the services or products of an external application without having to replicate the entire software. By doing this, they are basically optimizing the function of their own software, while reducing development costs. Of course, it goes without saying that this brings about automation. Manual tasks that would have been done if there was no API rendering a required service would now be automated, thereby saving time.
Commonly used APIs
Let’s look at some examples of commonly used API’s.
- Facebook API
With the Facebook API, applications can use the social network profile to make users more involved in an engagement. Applications integrating the API can share information from Facebook, based on the privacy settings that have been set by the user or the customer in this case. Although there’s a restriction on the amount of data that can be used from the Facebook API, what’s available is still super resourceful for any application using it. - Google Maps API
This API allows developers to be able to embed Google Maps into mobile applications and web pages. If as a developer, you simply just want to retrieve data from Google Maps, the API also comes in handy. - YouTube Data API
With the YouTube Data API, you can add YouTube features to your application. You’re also able to upload videos, manage playlists and subscriptions from your application, and these are super-useful functionalities. - Amazon S3 API
S3 stands for simple storage service. Typically, as your application begins to go past the prototype stage, it’s imperative to look for better ways to scale your storage. Amazon S3 is arguably one of the most reliable storage services for your files. You can easily upload files to your S3 bucket. The S3 bucket can be likened to a file folder. If you check out the overview on the S3 site, it absolutely boasts of being designed to deliver 99.999999999% durability. I personally use S3 for some of my side projects, and I find the API pretty simple to work with. I also respect the fact that you can only pay for what you use, as opposed to paying a flat rate. - Stripe API
This is commonly used in applications where users need to make payments. Stripe simply allows users to accept payments online. With the API, you’re able to keep track of payments and customers, search past payments, and you’re also able to create recurring charges.
Those are some APIs you’re very likely to use at least once as a developer. A piece of knowledge about how to consume and work with APIs is pretty instrumental in working on a software team or even just building your own application.
