It is an abbreviation for Application Programming Interface, which can be translated as an interface for programming applications. An API is a set of protocols and tools that programmers use when creating software andapplications. It is an interface through which applications and systems communicate with each other.
An API helps in creating applications by allowing the programmer access to other software. The developer abstracts certain functionality from another application, social network, or database and does not have to recreate it since it has already been created by someone else.
Access can be private (intended only for internal use within the company), partner (intended only for specific business partners), or public (available to the general public).