Twitter launches new API to help developers build top features

San Francisco: Twitter has unveiled a new Application Programming Interface (API) to help businesses, academics and third-party developers build and launch new features faster.

The new Twitter "API v2" offers third-party developers an early stage access to features like "conversation threading, poll results in Tweets, pinned Tweets on profiles, spam filtering, and a more powerful stream filtering and search query language."

There's also access to a real-time tweet stream, rather than forcing third parties to wait before serving new tweets, reports The Verge.

The API v2 is the first complete rebuild of Twitter's API since 2012.

The new API system puts different products in the same platform, each with different access levels.

Researchers use Twitter's API for several purposes, from gauging flood levels from tweets to tracking the spread of online hate speech.

According to Twitter's Alyssa Reese, "we want developers to get moon-eyed when they talk about our documentation.

"Our aim is to be a company that other developer platforms reference when they are looking for inspiration (and we know we have a way to go)."

The earlier Twitter's API was split into three platforms: standard (free), premium (self-serve paid), and enterprise (custom paid).

The new API replaces these tiers with "product tracks" in a single platform, with these products then split into the different tiers of access, the report said.