One of the highlights at DBX, Dropbox’s first ever developer conference, was the launch of the Dropbox platform” a suite of tools for building apps that allows effortless access to hundreds of millions of Dropbox clients across all location and devices. While the cloud storage service of Dropbox is a fundamental component to the platform, it also syncs settings, contacts, to-do list and such! Mailbox, Shuttershock, and Yahoo Mail are among the first few to use the new set of tools!

The Dropbox platform has new features on top of existing ones: native Chooser for iOS and Android enables users to bring files to mobile app directly from Dropbox; Saver allows users to add files of all sizes to Dropbox with just one click, currently with versions for web and mobile web, and soon with native versions for iOS and Android; and Datastore API enables developers not only to sync files but also structured data such as to-do list and contacts across all devices. Dropbox has already rolled out Datastore SDKs for iOS (Objective-C), Android (Java), and JavaScript.

Old features include the Core API which allows developers to integrate Dropbox into their app, released in 2010; Dropbox Chooser for Web, a lightweight UI component made up of a few lines of HTML that provides instant access to Dropbox files via Web apps, unveiled in 2012; and Sync API which was designed to sync files to Dropbox by handling caching and “network flakiness,” rolled out in February 2013.

There are two approaches in accessing a user’s Dropbox from an app. One of which is file-type permission, allowing an app to access specific file types. “Many apps only need certain types of files, like documents or photos,” according to Dropbox. “File-type permissions make it easier for an app to work with just those files.” There’s also full Dropbox permission which allow access to all the files and folders in a user’s Dropbox.

DropBox is currently using OAuth 2.0 to ensure API security: “With the iOS and Android SDKs, we’ve optimized the OAuth flow to use the official Dropbox API. All API calls are done over SSL.”

Dropbox is trying win over developers so they would build quality apps to support its service, and therefore, live by the company’s vision of a computing world where users share and sync files through the cloud. For those interested in developing for Dropbox and learning more about the available APIs, check out the cloud company’s developer section.