Uber thinks that “any app with a map is a potential Uber API partner” – so with that in mind, the on-demand car company is opening the Uber API to all developers.
Uber is launching the API with eleven flagship partners who have already begun to use it – Expensify, Hinge, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Momento, OpenTable, Starbucks, Tempo Smart Calendar, Time Out, TripAdvisor, TripCase, and United Airlines.
The API currently allows third-party apps to “pass a destination address to the Uber app, display pickup times, provide fare estimates, access trip history and more,” according to Uber. The company is being a bit more cautious with their main functionality – requesting rides. Since that action would actually send an Uber driver to pick someone up, Uber is releasing that part of the API “in a more controlled fashion.”
“At Uber, our mission is to bring transportation as reliable as running water to everyone, everywhere: just tap a button and your car arrives in minutes. While simple on the surface, the seamlessness of the Uber experience belies the enormous complexity that powers it. But now that we have this fundamental capability in place—a capability we like to think of as converting bits to atoms—in over 40 countries around the world, there are so many things we would love to see built on top of it,” says the company.
To sweeten the pot for developers, Uber has also opened up the API Affiliate Program, which promises Uber credits and other rewards for integrating Uber into their services. Those “other rewards” will include cash at some point in the future.
Image via Uber