Announcing the App.net File API

by

The promise of “unbundling”

Imagine a world in which your social data (e.g. messages, photos, videos) was easier to work with. For instance, imagine you could try out a new photo sharing service without having to move all of your photos and social graph.

In this world, your photos are held in a data store controlled by you. If you want to try out a new service, you can seamlessly login and choose to give permission to that service, and the photos that you have granted access to would be immediately available.

This is one benefit of an “unbundled” social service. Unbundling gives the user power to pick the software that best suits their needs, rather than being forced to use the software made by the company that manages their data.

Bringing App.net one step closer to that vision

To date, App.net has been focused on messaging & communication applications, however, with the introduction of the File API we are expanding the scope of App.net-enabled social applications. In other words, in addition to storing posts & private messages, an App.net account can now store files.

Screen Shot 2013-01-28 at 9.48.47 AM

App.net “member” and “developer” tier accounts now have access to a 10GB bucket of file storage. This storage can be accessed by App.net applications in order to read/write files.

What kinds of applications could be built with this API?

photo-viewer-2

  • Photo sharing applications
  • “Glue” to tie together desktop/mobile/tablet photo applications (in a way that is not tied to a specific platform such as iOS or Android)
  • Collaboration tools. (When tied together with the Messaging API)

As part of this API release, we have added a photo uploader to the Alpha web interface, and basic file sharing support will be added to the Omega messaging interface shortly. We look forward to seeing what 3rd party developers are able to build with this new API!

Thanks

The App.net team

  • http://twitter.com/ShamADN Sham

    huge.

  • http://callumtaylor.net/ Callum Taylor

    Great job guys!

  • http://www.facebook.com/seraj Seraj Farabi-Iverson

    Awesome! Love it!

  • David Tauzell

    Could something like Dropbox implement this? Or would they need to implement a bunch of other APIs as well?

    • Matthew Flaschen

      Dropbox has their own storage (S3). However, like Kyle said, Dropbox could still build their own app.net integration.

  • http://luxurybauble.com/ Erik Schmidt

    This is fantastic news, Dalton. Kudos to you and the team. I can’t wait to see the clever uses that spring out of this.

  • Manx

    This is the kind of stuff I was hoping for! Great news.

  • http://twitter.com/vincentleeuwen Vincent van Leeuwen

    Cool!

  • http://twitter.com/TeaWithCarl Carl Levinson

    Awesome …. great idea.

  • tony

    Why not simply hook into dropbox, or similar, rather than re-invent the wheel? Not a crit, just asking.
    I’d prefer hooking into dropbox as now i have yet another storage area.

    • http://www.facebook.com/matthew.stevens Matthew J Stevens

      Because then you don’t have to mess with linking the two services. While popular, lots of people don’t use Dropbox.

      • http://benignthoughts.com/ Louis C.

        Then include it as an option.

        • http://twitter.com/kdaigle Kyle Daigle

          With an API, someone could just build that integration.

      • http://twitter.com/daniel_levine Daniel Levine

        Lots of people do use Dropbox :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/psinghiitr Praveendra Singh

      agree with tony. I already have installed dropbox app on my pc, iphone etc. installing another one would be pain.
      integration with dropbox is preferred.

    • Boris Nienke

      wouldn’t using dropbox undercut the idea of having your data under your control? Dropbox (for most of us) is a free service. Maybe the payed accounts are business-model enough to offer free accounts too – but maybe not. I don’t know what really happen with my data.
      And they had some security problems in the past…
      Don’t get me wrong, i love dropbox but i understand why app.net would rather build up it’s own infrastructure so that users data are all in one place :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/BrennanWStehling Brennan Stehling

      The point of the File API is to be service neutral. It can integrate with Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive, Box, etc. The app that you use to interact with ADN can integrate that for you. And there is nothing stopping you from simply sharing something on Dropbox with someone now anyway.

  • Zunaid Khan

    Love it