How to Properly Deprecate APIs

As with any product lifecycle, a key responsibility for API architects and API product owners is deciding when to sunset or retire a feature or offering. The API lifecycle is no different, but requires careful planning to carry out the deprecation to minimize customer impact. Unlike a packaged solution or module which is more of a black box, APIs enable your customers to build custom functionality which may have requires months of integration work and testing. Without the correct assessment or process, you could prematurely deprecate a critical service causing a storm of support tickets.

This guide walks through the best practices of deprecating an endpoint and shows, by example, how to do it with an analytics platform.