Tint, a friend management service on social networks, announced via an email to its users that the social network Facebook has scheduled the end of the hashtag API, which allows access to hashtag data, on April 30.
Tint stated that the API in question started returning errors since yesterday and that Facebook has confirmed that it will no longer support the API used for hashtags. Thus services that use the feature will not be able to access hashtag data and statistics, according to TNW.
An spokesperson for Faceboοk said: “We made this change because we heard from our members that they want more control over the information they share with the apps. The Post Search API allows apps to access public posts of members. So we are shutting down this API to give our members more control over how their information is used by the apps.”
There are two alternative solutions that developers can consider if they want to continue using hashtags in their searches on Facebook:
The Facebook Media Solutions API allows apps to return post counts with hashtags. The feature is available to a limited set of developers who build solutions for media companies. Developers can request to sign up by emailing contentsolutions@fb.com.
In addition, the social network has a partnership with Datasift, a service that allows apps to conduct searches and retrieve anonymous and aggregated information from Facebook.
