We often get requests to add features that might be used fairly commonly in modern products. Such as document processing, payments, video calls, geolocation, etc.
Thanks to APIs, you no longer have to go through the hassle of building everything from scratch. With APIs, you can easily access pre-built solutions for all the essential features your app needs, like payment processing, geolocation tracking, email, video calls, and many more. This way, allowing you to focus on what makes your app unique and exciting.
So let’s dive in and explore how APIs help you build a better app.
What Is an API?
In a nutshell, API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of tools that allows a website or software to communicate with another program.
Think of it like a waiter in a restaurant who takes your order and then communicates it to the kitchen. APIs work in a similar way, allowing different programs to communicate with each other and share information.
The great thing about APIs is that they can be integrated into your software within a fairly short period of time, making it easier to build new applications and letting you stay focused on the app’s core functionality.
What Makes a Good API?
As we worked with different API solutions, we revealed that not all APIs are the same. Some are easy to integrate, while others might turn out to be a complete nightmare to work with. So, here are the things we believe indicate that your API integration is going to be successful:
- The API should be simple and intuitive to use, with clear documentation and examples that make it easy to get started.
- It must be secure and use various measures to protect data and ensure that only authorized users have access to it.
- The API should stay consistent in its design and behavior to let you easily understand how it works and what to expect from it.
- The API of your choice should be flexible to support a wide range of use cases and scenarios, allowing customizing it to your specific needs.
- Sure, you will enjoy working with a reliable and high-performance API with minimal downtime or errors as well as minimal to no latency or delays.
- It’s nice to have a scalable API that can handle large volumes of requests and data.
- It should have documentation and informative community forums that help resolve issues you may face on your way.
Benefits of Using APIs during Product Development
APIs have revolutionized custom product development and offer a myriad of benefits, both for the development team and the product owner, namely:
- Significantly speed up custom product development by allowing developers to leverage pre-built tools and functionalities.
- Enhance the functionality of a custom product by providing access to features and services that would otherwise be difficult or time-consuming to implement.
- Reduce the overall cost of custom product development by eliminating the need to build everything from scratch.
- Improve the user experience of custom products by unlocking access to smoothly operating tools and services, such as payments, geolocation, or video chat.
- Increase the scalability and security of your application ( more on this below).
How APIs Help Build Secure and Scalable Applications
By leveraging the power of APIs in custom product development, developers can build better products that are scalable and secure.
Security
When it comes to developing software, security is crucial. You want the app users to feel safe sharing personal information like their addresses and billing details.
To do this, you can take the hard way, meaning that you’ve got to develop a security solution of your own. And it involves implementing tokens, validating roles, setting up different levels of access and permissions, managing token expirations, and many more. As you might have guessed, this is not that simple.
Instead of creating your own security system which can be tricky and prone to errors, why not use security APIs? Auth0 and Okta are just a few examples of popular and effective security APIs that provide authentication and authorization functionality via API. With these APIs, you can integrate high-tech security into your software quickly and easily, giving the users the peace of mind they deserve.
Scalability
Say you’ve built a really good security system for your app, and everything’s running smoothly. But then, you realize you need to add Google and Apple sign-in options. That sounds like a big job! You’d have to figure out how to do it and spend at least a week on development and testing.
But if you use Auth0 API for your security needs, you can add those sign-in options in just a couple of hours. With Auth0, you get access to a wide range of sign-in options, from Google and Facebook to Apple and Twitter, and more. All you have to do is enable the option in the dashboard and voila — your app is now equipped with all the latest security features.
Conclusion
Building a custom app is tons of work. And when you avoid using APIs, you do not make things any easier.
So, instead of reinventing the wheel, why not take advantage of APIs that provide the functionality you need for your app? This way, you can focus on the features that make your app unique and special, leaving the rest to the professional service providers. By using existing APIs, you can save yourself a lot of hassle and create a high-quality product users will love. So go ahead, get creative, and let those APIs work their magic!
At ORIL, we have extensive experience working with APIs to create custom products that meet our clients’ unique needs. Our team will work closely with you to understand your vision and goals, and help you identify the most suitable APIs to use in your project. We’ll also ensure that the APIs are seamlessly integrated into your app, delivering a high-quality and reliable end product that meets your expectations.
So, if you’re looking for a way to speed up your app development process and create a high-quality product, get in touch with our team today to learn more about how we can help you with your custom product development needs.
