Facebook Opens Status API, Say Goodbye to Twitter
Tonight Facebook has made a number of updates to the Facebook platform one of which is the opening of status updates. In order to get Facebook statuses, you no longer need to use a session ID to access statuses.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook had already signaled a broader platform posture through its 2007 move to open Facebook and made the status field a more direct part of user expression with its simplified status-update format. Opening programmatic access extends that status layer from Facebook’s own interface to outside applications.
The change matters because status updates are a high-frequency social signal. Removing the session-ID requirement lowers a technical barrier for developers seeking to incorporate Facebook activity into their products.
First-order effects
- Third-party developers can retrieve Facebook status updates without maintaining a user session, making status-driven integrations easier to build.
- Facebook gains a clearer route for its platform ecosystem to surface and organize activity centered on Facebook profiles.
Second-order effects
- Twitter must compete for developer attention against a Facebook platform that can offer access to an established social graph as well as status data.
- Applications built around real-time social updates become more dependent on Facebook’s access rules, giving Facebook greater leverage over how its data is used.
Third-order effects
- The move points toward status updates becoming platform data rather than a feature confined to a single social-network interface, with API terms determining which outside services can build on them.
- As social platforms open high-value activity feeds, the public-data permission boundary becomes a strategic control point: developer reach expands, but the platform retains the power to set access conditions.
The trend: Social networks are turning lightweight status activity into an API layer, competing for developers through both distribution and control of user data.