Meta Released Depth API, OpenAI API Improvements, Tesla API

The API Changelog issue 2023.42

The API Changelog is back after a very long hiatus. From now on, Vania Coelho will join me to take charge of the editing. We're also accepting sponsorships from companies that are aligned with our vision of independently curating and sharing API-related information.

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This issue of the API Changelog was crafted with the help of Zuplo. Make your business API-first with the first-ever edge API Gateway that's multi-cloud ready.

Zuplo is the only API Gateway that runs your OpenAPI definition directly. If you care about high-quality developer documentation, API analytics, and zero configuration deployments, give Zuplo a try today.

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This is issue 2023.42 of the API Changelog, a weekly mix of API news, commentary, and opinion. In this issue, you'll get to know the most relevant API-related information from the weeks of September 25, 2023, to October 9, 2023. Subscribe now, so you never miss an issue of the API Changelog.

Digital Collage by Bruno Pedro

Announcements

Advise Wise, a later-life sourcing platform, announced its integration with Just, a UK financial services group. According to the financial reporter, the integration "allows the entire sourcing process for Just products to be completed on the Advise Wise Platform."

Apple introduced a new API that allows third-party apps to integrate subscriptions with Apple Podcasts. One of the integrations lets users listen to Apple Music radio shows from the podcasts UI.

Rocker, a financial health company, announced a partnership with Snowdrop, a location-enhanced data enrichment platform. IBS Intelligence reported that the partnership allows Rocker to use Snowdrop's transaction data enrichment API.

General Motors announced the release of its uServices API. According to the announcement, "uServices is meant to serve as GM's own API for other software developers to build apps that can work across multiple lineups of vehicles."

Tesla announced the release of its official API. The available documentation for Tesla's Fleet API shows that there are features related to charging, vehicles, and telemetry, among others. See additional coverage on Electrek.

Tyk announced they've been selected as a Leader in Gartner's 2023 Magic Quadrant™ for API Management. The announcement also hints at Tyk's next move in the API experience space.

Meta announced the release of the Depth API for Quest 3. The Depth API offers an experimental feature that lets developers test mixed reality dynamic occlusion. See additional coverage on Upload.

Zuplo announced the release of RateMyOpenAPI. The new API rating tool calculates the score of your OpenAPI definition and suggests the issues you need to fix to improve it.

Events

Marco Palladino wrote "API Summit 2023 Recap." The article highlights interesting moments from the Kong event that happened in September 2023. Among other announcements, Kong introduced Insomnia 8.0 and a UI for their Gateway OSS called Kong Manager Open Source.

Alex Broadbent published "APIDays London Conference 2023 Summary." In this piece, the author shares a list of recommended talks, including links to their full video recordings. The list includes "API Management is Broken" by Josh Twist from Zuplo, and "Everything Everywhere All at Once: API as a Product" by Rob Prince from Just Eat.

AI

Tray.io, an iPaaS, added a feature that uses AI to identify the efficient way to automate workflows. DevOps.com reports that "Tray Universal Automation Cloud service can be invoked via three distinct application programming interfaces (APIs) to programmatically create workflows."

Microsoft announced a partnership with Snap to leverage Chat Ads API for Sponsored Links in Snapchat's My AI. "The partnership offers advertisers a richer, more targeted approach to engaging Snapchat's 750 million monthly active users," as reported by the Search Engine Journal. See additional coverage on the Search Engine Land, MSPowerUser, and TechCrunch.

Cohere, an enterprise generative AI startup, rolled out Coral, a chatbot API that will enable developers to integrate conversational capabilities into their organization's services. Voicebot.ai reports that a free demo is available.

Edamam, a provider of nutrition data, released an AI assistant that connects to all its APIs. The AI assistant is currently in beta and the company invites users to share feedback.

Eden AI, an AI developer platform, announced the availability of their Emotion Detection API. The API lets developers connect directly to emotion recognition providers such as NLP Cloud and Vern AI.

Reuters reported that OpenAI plans to improve its offering to developers. According to the article, OpenAI can unveil features such as memory storage and vision capabilities.

Funding and M&A

Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, announced its strategic acquisition of Lightstream, Rainmaker, and API.stream from Videndum. See additional coverage on Business Wire.

Upvest, a fintech startup, raised €30 million. BlackRock, Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, and Earlybird, among others, participated in the round.

Alpaca, a stock and crypto brokerage service, raised $15 million in a convertible note. SBI Group was the only investor in this strategic operation that had the goal of expanding Alpaca's operation to Asia.

Security

OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, issued a statement warning about the safety of their API keys. The statement came out after an incident that impacted approximately 7% of OpenSea's users, as reported by the Coin Republic. See additional coverage on the Crypto Navigator, BSC News, Protos, and Nation World News.

8x8, an integrated cloud contact center product, announced a new SMS fraud prevention API. According to the announcement, the new API "proactively detects and prevents fraudulent activities through automated fraud alerts."

Alisa Duncan wrote "Why You Should Migrate to OAuth 2.0 From Static API Tokens." According to the author, migrating from Static API tokens to OAuth 2.0 offers more robust security, flexibility, and a better developer experience to call external APIs and access the resources of third parties.

Techopedia published "Zombie APIs: Risks and Remedies for Modern Businesses." This article explores the notion of zombie APIs and how they can become a security threat. According to the author, "Organizations can look to address zombie APIs by running automated scanning with an API vulnerability scanner."