Responding to Feedback: What's New in the Twitch API

Developer Infrastructure Team: API & Identity
surviv.io fan
J.N Vollmer 
Director of Engineering

Responding to Feedback:
What’s New in the Twitch API

TwitchCon 2018 San Jose, California
What’s the New
Twitch API Again?
REST APIs
Webhooks
Identity

Top consumers are Extensions and
streamer tools
778%
Growth in usage
Yr-on-Yr
83%
Of the new API traffic
Is Extensions
99.995%
API Uptime
Key Facts About the
New Twitch API in 2018
99.949%
Webhooks Uptime

-Consume, create, and update
relevant Twitch-related data
-Build engaging experiences for
Twitch streamers and viewers
-Consistent design across endpoints
-Bulk capabilities where applicable
-Transparent
#1.
/helix REST APIs
WHAT IS THE NEW TWITCH API?
4 Tenets of the New Twitch API
Reliability
Consistency
Simplicity
Transparency

- Stream markers
- Game analytics
- Extension Analytics
- Bits leaderboard
- Clips
- User Extensions
Made for
Tools Dev
Games Dev
Extensions Dev
#1.
/helix REST APIs
WHAT’S NEW IN 2018

What’s a webhook?
- Stop calling us, we’ll call you
- A Reverse API: a web callback or http push
API
How is this related to standard REST APIs?
- Consistent data schema: identical to
the /helix corresponding APIs
- Built on W3C Websub standard
#2.
Webhooks Benefits
Real-time Events
Cost Savings
No More Polling

new follower?
Your App
Server
Nope
new follower?
Nope
new follower?
Nope
new follower?
You have a new
follower
Twitch
REST Polling
#2  
Webhooks
WHAT’S THE NEW TWITCH API?

#2  
Webhooks
Subscribe to
new followers
Server
Ok
Confirm
subscription?
Ok
new follower
Webhook Flows
new follower
new follower
Twitch

- Stream Changed (initially stream
Up/Down)
- User Changed
- Game Analytics
- Extension Analytics
- Webhooks Subscription
Management API
WHAT’S NEW IN 2018?
#2.
Webhooks

- Who can access what resources,
with what permissions
- In the API context, our solution for
authenticating and authorizing API
calls
- OAuth 2 Standard
#3.
Identity

- Many behind-the-scenes security
and performance improvements
- Revamped app authorization screen
Benefits:
- Security
- Performance
- Security!
#3.
Identity
WHAT’S NEW IN 2018?

- Quick and frictionless onboarding:
build a new test integration from
scratch in minutes
- Limits on what each integration can
do by default
• For the greater good of the
developer community
• To protect users’ private data
- Protection and support to enable
high-traffic integrations
Overall

What Do You
(Twitch API Developers)
Want?
Your feedback and what we’re
doing about it

“We’ve had three big ideas […]
that we’ve stuck with for 18 years,
and they’re the reason we’re
successful: Put the customer first.
Invent. And be patient.”

“We’ve had three big ideas […]
that we’ve stuck with for 18
years, and they’re the reason
we’re successful: Put the
customer first. Invent. And be
patient.”

Collect Feedback
Identify
Challenges
Trade Offs &
Solutions
Design
Philosophy
Steering
Committee
How Twitch API 
Puts the
Customer First

You want to get relevant data in as few
calls as possible.
- userID field in API responses is generally
“not useful enough”
- API is too chatty
- Worse for webhooks: a push should not
need subsequent pulls
- “90% of our calls to the new Twitch API
are to translate userIDs to userNames.”
Data
Fragmentation
PROBLEM #1

Instead of just returning the userID to
represent a user in API responses and
webhooks, we are adding the
userName
A more pragmatic and flexible approach
Denormalization
of Key Field
SOLUTION #1
BEFORE: A USER == { USERID }
AFTER: A USER == { USERID, USERNAME }
Lower the number of calls

Restrictive
Rate Limiting
PROBLEM #2
- Existing rate limiting mechanism is
client-ID based
- Good intention: protect everyone and
enable scaling
BUT:
- Prevents your app from being popular
- Large spike in viewership will bring the
number of calls over the limit and make
an app unusable
- Compounded by problem #1 (need for
additional API requests)

Token bucket algorithm: burst
friendly by design
Variable point value per endpoint
Supports continous growth and burst
Smart Rate
Limiting
SOLUTION #2
Your limit varies with user generated traffic
Based on:
- clientID+userID for calls that provide an
OAuth token
- IP for calls otherwise

Subscriptions API
Endpoint
PROBLEM #1
- Exists in the legacy v5 API
BUT:
- Unreliable; some fields are inconsistent
- Suboptimal design; legacy API is too
permissive

New Subscriptions
API Endpoint
SOLUTION #3
Enables two use cases:
- Get list of subscribers for a channel
- Confirm whether a viewer is
subscribed to a given channel
BONUS:
-Webhook
BENEFITS
- Safer
- Consistent
- Real-time data push

What Can You
Build?
A few ideas…

Use Case:
Stream Markers
ELGATO STREAM DECK
Announcement: https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/introducing-the-stream-markers-api/
- Programmable keypad with 15 LCD
- Specifically built for streamers; very
popular
- First product of its kind that replaces
random keybindings
Stream Markers API enables a
“marker button”

Use Case:
Stream Markers

“The Create Stream Marker API is
perfect for our use case.
I quickly implemented it in Stream Deck
and this works great: […] the Stream
Marker automagically appears in Twitch.
- Alexandre Colucci, Tech Lead @elgato

“New Follower”
Webhook
STREAMLABS WIDGETS
- Push real-time on screen
notifications to viewers when a
streamer gets a new follower
- Leads to streamer and viewer
excitement and engagement with
viewers
- Before webhooks, the use case could
only be accomplished with polling,
with delays

STREAMLABS
“New follower”
webhook

How Do I
Get Started?
A quick tutorial/refresher…

Sign into Twitch
Dev Site
GETTING STARTED
HTTP://DEV.TWITCH.TV

Create an Extension
or App
GETTING STARTED
- Apps are a simple basic
construct to make API calls
- Extensions are more
sophisticated, but based on the
same core concepts. Use the
Extensions Dev Rig on Github!
- You will receive a client ID and a
client Secret

- Pass the Client-ID in a header
- Get the data
Pros:
- Simple
Cons:
- Low rate limit
Call an
‘Anonymous’
Endpoint
BASIC USE CASE

Create and Use a
Bearer Token
REGULAR USE CASE
- Three types of tokens
- Three types of flows
https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/
authentication/#getting-tokens
- Simplest combination: OAuth user
access token with implicit grant
- Request only the scopes you need

OAuth 2 Implicit
Grant Flow
Your App
(Client)
Twitch Server
Authorization
Endpoint
(id.twitch.tv)
#1
Authentication/
Authorization
Request
Twitch User
#2
Auth Request
Twitch Server
Authorization
Endpoint
(id.twitch.tv)
#3
Auth Granted
Your App
(Client)
#4
Access Token

OAuth user access token with
implicit grant Simple
How to Create a
Bearer Token
curl -X GET 'https://id.twitch.tv/oauth2/authorize?
response_type=token&client_id=uo6dggojyb8d6soh92zknwmi
ej1q2&redirect_uri=http://
localhost&scope=viewing_activity_read&state=c3ab8aa609
a11e793ae92361f002671'
//Redirects to”:
https://
localhost#access_token=0123456789abcdefghijABCDEFGHIJ
&scope=viewing_activity_read
&state=c3ab8aa609ea11e793ae92361f002671
&token_type=bearer
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How to Create a Bearer Token
Calling the Users API to Retrieve Details of a Given User
curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer cfabdegwdoklmawdzdo98xt2fo512y'
-X GET 'https://api.twitch.tv/helix/users?id=44322889'
{
"data": [{
"id": "44322889",
"login": "dallas",
"display_name": "dallas",
"type": "staff",
"broadcaster_type": "",
"description": "Just a gamer playing games and chatting. :)",
"profile_image_url": "https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/d.png",
"offline_image_url": "https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/d.png",
"view_count": 191836881,
"email": "login@provider.com"
}]
}
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That’s it!
You are ready to roll

See you on https://dev.twitch.tv
Thank you!

Responding to Feedback: What's New in the Twitch API

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