Here’s the thing: Mastodon already has a really good API. There’s a whole ecosystem of clients around it, to the point that many other Fediverse implementations adopted it, so that they can use the apps.
I don’t think this is a bad thing in and of itself. But, if we want projects like Mastodon to support it, the value proposition has to provide things that the Mastodon API does not.
I think a killer feature to focus on would be identity management.
Bluesky absolutely got it right with ATproto: you can make any kind of client, not just microblogging, and it will seamlessly work with your Bluesky identity. Everything you post goes into your personal storage, and the clients that know how to interpret special data types are able to reach into your PDS and the timelines you’re following to present that stuff.
ActivityPub API needs to follow a similar story.
If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://social.wedistribute.org/objects/cad968cf-56a3-459f-8950-525caada5cde on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)
