Accessing Twitter Data

When someone wants to access our APIs, they are required to register an application. By default, applications can only access public information on Twitter. Certain endpoints, such as those responsible for sending or receiving Direct Messages, require additional permissions from you before they can access your information. These permissions are not granted by default; you choose on a per-application basis whether to provide this access, and can control all the applications authorized on your account.

The Twitter APIs include a wide range of endpoints, which fall into five primary groups:

Accounts and users

Twitter API allows developers to programmatically manage an account’s profile and settings, mute or block users, manage users and followers, request information about an authorized account’s activity, and more. These endpoints can help citizen services like the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management which provides information to residents about emergency responses and emergency alerts.

Tweets and replies

Public Tweets and replies are made available to developers, and allow developers to post Tweets via our API. Developers can access Tweets by searching for specific keywords, or requesting a sample of Tweets from specific accounts.

These endpoints are used by NGOs like the UN to identify, understand and counter misinformation around public health initiatives. For example, in Indonesia, there were persistent rumorsthat vaccinations either contained pork product or caused infertility. Understanding how the rumors started and were spread allowed the UN to get a team on the ground to help dispel these myths, which caused particular concern in this Muslim-majority nation. Similarly, we help researchers listen for early symptomatic indications of disease outbreaks and monitor their spread. A team at Northeastern University recently developed a new flue-tracking technique using Twitter data that forecasts outbreaks up to six weeks in advance — much earlier than many other models, without sacrificing accuracy.

Direct Messages

Direct Message endpoints provide access to the DM conversations of users who have explicitly granted permission to a specific application. DM APIs provide limited access to developers to create personalized experiences on Twitter, like Wendy’s March Madness bracket builder. For accounts they own or manage, businesses can create these human- or chatbot-powered conversational experiences to communicate directly with customers for customer service, marketing, and brand engagement experiences.

Ads

A suite of APIs to let developers, like Sprinklr, help businesses automatically create and manage ad campaigns on Twitter. Developers can use public Tweets to identify topics and interests, and provide businesses with tools for running advertising campaigns to reach the diverse audiences on Twitter.

Publisher tools and SDKs

Tools for software developers and publishers are embeded to Twitter timelines, share buttons, and other Twitter content on webpages. These tools allow brands to bring live, public conversations from Twitter into their web experience and make it easy for their customers to share information and articles from their sites.