I have been doing some research work on some startups in Latin America and it is inevitable that when you do a reconnaissance work you end up getting so deep into the subject that you end up talking to people you know about the issue, the topic I bring you today is: What is an API? and what is it for?
APIs are a fundamental part in the functioning of our applications (apps) and web pages and in the communication between them.
API derives from the abbreviation of the words Application Programming Interfaces, which in Spanish means INTERFAS DE PROGRAMACION DE APLICACIONES.
In simple terms an API is a formal communication between two applications. For these two applications or web pages to communicate with each other formally they have to comply with certain rules, protocols, permissions that the owner of the app gives to its users.
It should also be noted that APIs are not on the surface of a website or application, they are not the visible part, but the internal communication circuits that only the developers of that website see and connect to make that tool work. As a normal user the only thing you will see from an API are the results, for example when you open a game on your phone and connect using your email or a Twitter or Facebook account.
APIs can have one or several functions and make multiple connections.
APIs can be private only for a company's use, they can be open only for partners, or they can be public so that any developer can interact with them or create other APIs so that they can communicate with each other.
How do APIs communicate with each other? The APIs communicate by means of a code with concrete functions, the developer when giving permission for the communication does not have to send all the code but only a specific part.
What are APIs for? Basically they are used to save time and money when making connections, an example of these connections would be when you enter a website to see what plays there are, when buying a ticket you have to connect your credit card with the website, which in turn is connected to your email, these permissions are granted by the APIs.
They are also useful when you just want to deliberately use the functions of a certain service to offer advantages to your users of that service to use your application.
For example, think that you want to create an application that connects to the publications that are on Twitter, for this you will have to connect your application to the service through the API that Twitter has available for developers, and if you want this application to communicate with the notification bar of an operating system, it will also need another API of the operating system.
