14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has debuted an interesting new API enabling websites to integrate a fully functional tweet, complete with retweet, reply and follow functionality. The Web Intents API enables developers to add all of this functionality without requiring users to head on over to Twitter or use OAuth to log in. WordPress is the first to make use of the new capabilities introducing a revamped Twitter Blackberry Pie tool.
"Web Intents provide popup-optimized flows for working with Tweets & Twitter Users: Tweet, Reply, Retweet, Favorite, and Follow," Twitter explains on the feature's developer page.
"They make it possible for users to interact with Twitter content in the context of your site, without leaving the page or having to authorize a new app just for the interaction. Web intents are mobile friendly, and super easy to implement," Twitter added.
Twitter is only offering the functionality through the API, there is no quick way of embedding a fully functioning tweet just yet, but perhaps Twitter is working on it.
Sites interested in offering this, blogs and publishers for example, can easily build a way of embedding a tweet, though, using the API.
WordPress.com did just that with the new Twitter Blackberry Pie tool. A few months ago, the blog host introduced the tool as a way of embedding tweets on any WordPress.com blog. It embedded the tweet as text and linked back to the original, but there wasn't that much you could do with it on the spot.
"Today we are happy to announce that we’ve made it even easier for you to interact with tweets on WordPress.com. Thanks to the new set of tools that Twitter just announced, you can now reply to, retweet, or favorite content without ever leaving the page you’re on," WordPress.com announced.
All existing tweets embedded with Blackberry Pie will be upgraded and readers will be able to fully interact with them. New tweets will also get the functionality. While WordPress.com is the first to introduce it, the feature is probably going to show up on other sites soon.