What happened to the Buffer API?

The Buffer API was a social media favorite for a long time, but it was deprecated in 2019.

I was an avid user of Buffer and the Buffer API for social media posting, and to this day I love the seamless interface of their dashboard and easy workflow. Many years ago when I started my previous company I had a plan that every day I would start in the morning by researching post content, writing a few posts, and planning these posts to go out later in the day. No problem, right?

The “everyday…” schedule goes down quickly by creating these manual posts; I got distracted by other important things as my company grew, or it was just too lazy to think of new posts every day. Regardless, my social media engagement decreased as I posted less, which is not good.

However, I realized why I bother with my content since my users have created content on my site, such as photos and videos, and they have been asking for an easy way to share it with them. yours social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. How can I allow my user to approve their public account and edit posts, and of course get stats and comments, on their behalf? Why, the Buffer API!

Every founder and consumer-facing business leader knows how important social media is to growing a brand. Social media is an extension of your company’s identity in a personal way to your community. In a way that no other media allows, my social media accounts allow me to connect and create dialogue with my users that is so important to building brand and reputation. If you have a platform, agency, or CMS, it is very important to allow your users to publish directly to your site. Asking them to download content and go to each social media site, they won’t do it.

Like most things in life, if it’s worth doing, it takes real effort.

Then I read an article, which I’m still hunting for, that was a slap-your-head “yes” moment: you can post to your public account using the API from your app. Instead of asking my users to download content, I can automate the whole process for them. What I needed was an API through which I could send my posts.

I went back to Buffer to use their API and bam!

WTF!

In 7 short years, or perhaps longer years in technology, Buffer went from providing an API to removing it.

So what happened to Buffer’s API?

Based on an email Loomly received from Buffer, it looks like Buffer and its users have run into trouble over social media:

We have decided that we can no longer allow certain uses of the Buffer API, especially if the submission violates the agreements we have with social networks.

That’s fine, but simple shipping abuse happens whether it’s manual or automated. And you can build in defenses, boundaries, and other security measures.

Then we come to:

After testing the existing API integration, we chose to withdraw access to third-party tools that provide the same functionality to Buffer’s core product, namely editing social media posts directly through social network APIs. These products will no longer be able to use the Buffer API.

Ah ha! Companies using Buffer as a proxy for posting were no longer wanted as Buffer appears to be reducing its focus on media agencies. In this context, such a strategy to de-emphasize the API makes sense. After all, most agencies have teams of people who create content and manually edit and post all day long.

It’s a shame that Buffer ditched their API as there is a dearth of good social API solutions out there and it’s absolutely necessary if you want to automate your social media.

But that’s why we have Ayrshare social media APIs. With my partner, we built Ayrshare first and then users can automatically post to social networks through an API. Check out how we are a great Buffer API Alternative and how we protect our customers with our Public Post Approval Program.

Best of all,

Geoffrey Bourne

Co-Founder, Ayrshare