Here’s What API Is (And What It Stands For) In Simple Words

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Discussing technical jargon isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of how the technology we use works.

API is a technical term that comes up quite often, especially in professional contexts and software development discussions. In recent years, the terminology has seeped into mainstream conversations. For example, you may remember the public debate last year when Reddit made some controversial changes to its API, or you may have read something about locating your ChatGPT API key.

The good news is that the concept is simpler than it might seem at first glance, and you don’t need to be a programmer or someone with technical knowledge to understand the role APIs play in our lives.

API is an acronym. In API, the “A” stands for application, the “P” stands for programming, and the “I” stands for interface. Of course, that doesn’t tell you much on its own, so here’s what else you need to know about APIs and how they work.

How do APIs work?

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If you’ve ever checked the weather with an app, shopped online, or watched a Netflix show, you’ve used an API. So what is an API? An API is simply a set of protocols that allows computer programs to communicate with each other.

Most of the apps we use every day wouldn’t work without APIs. Take food delivery apps, for example. When you place an order, the app sends an API request that reaches the restaurant you’re ordering from. Similarly, when you’re ready to pay for your order, the app sends an API request to a payment processor like PayPal.

What is an API in everyday language, you ask? Think of it this way. When you’re watching TV and the volume is too loud, you pick up the remote, point it at the TV, press the volume down button, and the volume is reduced to a more comfortable level. In this analogy, you’re sending requests to the TV, while the remote acts as an application programming interface. That’s exactly what APIs do—they take the data and send specific information to another application, which then performs the requested action.

API Architecture: What You Need to Know

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API architecture can be complex, but it is best understood as a client-server framework. In such a system, the application that sends requests is called the client. The server, meanwhile, accepts requests, processes them, and sends back responses.

This is exactly what some of the best weather apps do. They are not run by large teams of meteorologists who manually send out weather reports. Instead, weather apps use APIs to automatically pull in relevant data from various sources, such as weather databases, national weather services, forecasting models, and more.

In other words, the weather app acts as a client and automatically sends requests for information to the server. The server, usually a weather organization (or many organizations and entities), receives these requests and responds by sending weather data. Of course, all you see on your screen as a user is the current weather information, both requests and responses are done via an API, but now you know the processes that happen behind the scenes.