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The Twitter API

The Twitter API consists of two parts. This is entirely due to history. Summize, Inc. was originally an independent company that provided search capability for Twitter data. Summize was later acquired and rebranded as Twitter Search. Rebranding the site was easy, fully integrating Twitter Search and its API into the Twitter codebase is more difficult. It is in our pipeline to unify the APIs, but until resources allow the REST API and Search API will remain as separate entities.

The Twitter REST API methods allow developers to access core Twitter data. This includes update timelines, status data, and user information. The Search API methods give developers methods to interact with Twitter Search and trends data. The concern for developers given this separation is the effects on rate limiting and output format.

To learn about the methods and data available through the API, review the Twitter API technical documentation.

We publicly disclose current defects and enhancements. Current defects and enhancement priorities can be viewed on our issues list. Long term goals are recorded in the roadmap document.

The API is updated regularly with new features. We occasionally deprecate features. All of these changes are communicated in the following places:

• @twitterapi on Twitter.
• The low-volume Twitter API Announcements Google group.
• The conversation on the Twitter Development Talk Google group.
• The REST API Changelog on this wiki (Subscribe to the RSS feed!).

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