When you’re working with a third party API, it’s always a good practice to build a fallback from the very beginning. 1. Build a relay or cached layer: having a cached or a relay layer provides a few benefits. First of all, it creates a secured layer between third party API and your App, so it protects you app from vulnerabilities or compromised 3rd party APIs 2: build a local cache: it’s a common practice to keep a local cache of the data to load the UI on App while waiting for the response from the APIs. This ensures a smoother experience. All the social media apps do this. 3: Communicate the issue efficiently: what ever the issue may be, it’s important to communicate it to the users effectively, so that users are aware of the issue

On top of the strategies already highlighted, I would emphasize graceful degradation to maintain core functionality, alternative APIs to avoid single points of failure, and retry mechanisms to give users control. Additionally, using user-friendly messages instead of technical jargon ensures a better experience during disruptions. These steps are key to building a resilient and user-centric app.

To ensure a seamless user experience when third-party APIs fail, we can implement the following strategies: Graceful Degradation: Design your app to function with reduced functionality when the third-party API is unavailable. For example, if an API provides weather data, show the last known weather or a static fallback message like “Unable to fetch live data at the moment.” Caching: Cache data from the API for offline or fallback use. This allows your app to continue functioning with the most recent data if the API fails temporarily. Retry Logic: Implement automatic retries with exponential backoff for transient API failures. This can help recover from temporary network issues without needing user intervention.

Directly calling third party APIs from a client application is not recommended due to security vulnerabilities and ineffective failure management. Utilizing an API Gateway enhances reliability by efficiently handling third-party API failures. This approach strengthens security, improves system stability, and ensures a seamless user experience.

When third-party APIs fail, it feels like a cricket match where the star player suddenly gets injured. You have to step up the game. I always plan for such scenarios during development. ⤞ Build fallbacks for key features ⤞ Cache recent API data ⤞ Use mock APIs for testing ⤞ And Most important is Check the Last Update of the Plugins or 3rd Party API This way, users don’t feel the disruption. Once, an API went down during a client’s app demo. Thanks to our fallback, the app worked smoothly, and the client didn’t even notice. It taught me that preparation is not just a process, it is survival in tech.