What Is an API, and How Do Developers Use Them?

If you are a tech-related person or you just have any kind of affiliation with technology, then you must have heard the word API. Most people don’t really know what an API is, what it really does, and why the fuzz is all around about the API.

If you are not familiar, with and want to know about API, then this article will guide you through the basic concepts of API.

What Are an Application Programming Interface and marketplace?

The term API is an acronym, and it stands for “Application Programming Interface.”

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of protocols and tools used to develop applications for a specific platform. In software development, an API is a basis for creating an application for another platform.

In the case of Python, an API is an abstraction layer that allows developers to build more robust applications. It is essentially the set of tools and rules that an app uses in order to access the platform it is being built on.

Developers can buy or sell their APIs at the API marketplace. API Marketplace can be defined as a platform where a third-party seller/supplier and a consumer conduct a transaction over a product or service. For example, you can buy products from Amazon and other marketplaces while selling your own products. The same logic applies to the API marketplaces as well. You can be an API provider and a subscriber to other services at the same time.

Importance of APIs And Why Do We Need Them

APIs have been around for a while and they have become an integral part of any modern software development. Today, APIs are used not only by software developers but by end-users of the software as well. They are an essential part of modern business software development.

Let’s discuss some of the points that explain the benefits of APIs and why we need them.

APIs Provide Great Advantages to Developers

APIs have made the life of developers so easy by saving a lot of their time. A software developer would know that without API his job would be so much more difficult than it is now.

Let’s take an example of a mobile app in which you need to have the functionality of video calling. So you have two options now, the developers can write the whole interface and code for the video calling module or they can simply use the ZOOM API which can be used for video calling. Using the Zoom API make things simpler for the developers and will save a lot of development time.

Communication Between Services Using APIs

One of the best features of APIs is that it makes communication between services (or applications) easier and more straightforward. With the API, the communication between services is done in a standard format. We will not go into detail about the API here, but just know that the application using the API sends a request, and in response to that request, it receives data.

In terms of what you can receive this data as, you have three options: HTTP, XML, or JSON.

Controlled Access To The Data and Resources

One of the biggest concerns for any business today is data security. When you're sharing any information, what should you share and not share? For example, when a mobile app wants to log in through Facebook, Facebook only provides basic information such as your name, age, gender, etc — nothing more.

The API serves as a bridge between your application and an external service by providing the resources the app needs to operate. If the app wants to know your location, it'll use the publicly available location API.

Conclusion

We have seen that API is a very helpful service that is mainly used for communication between two services or applications. There are different types of APIs that are used according to the nature of the application, they can be private or public APIs. APIs have made developers’ life easier by saving their time.