API

What Is an API?

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a contract enabling one application to communicate with another in a predictable manner. In practice, it is a collection of rules, endpoints and data formats which specify a means for calling into a system and what one can expect in response.
In place of clicking buttons in a UI, another service calls an API: making a call out over the network (most likely HTTP), the platform validates the request within its business logic and returns structured data, typically as JSON. APIs have become the primary method through which modern products share data and invoke actions across one another.

APIs in Social and Live Products

In social or live content products, APIs usually sit on the backend as the under-the-hood layer that connects real-time features to the rest of the stack. They let you control chat and other live surfaces programmatically, plug moderation into internal tools, control access and feed engagement data into analytics or marketing systems, instead of handling everything only through a chat UI.

APIs and Webhooks

APIs are often used together with other integration tools.
API. The low-level contract: URLs, methods, payloads and auth. You can interface it from any backend system, job or integration platform capable of making HTTP requests.

Webhooks. Whenever something happens (for example, a live session starts or a user reaches a milestone), instead of you polling the API for updates, the platform sends the events to your URL.
Together, they allow you to manage what goes on in your real-time features (via API calls) and respond to it in your own product (via events and automations) for social features such as community chat, without having to rebuild the engagement layer from scratch.

Watchers have an API catalogue that allows clients to connect many tools and features with clients' existing systems and provide seamless and the fastest experiences for users. For instance, an API for marketing offers that can be sent to needed cohorts, or a ban API that allows you to synchronise the moderation system in a chat with the main platform user profiles.