Tesla has made a small but important change to their website indicating they will soon be officially supporting third-party app access.
Found in your Tesla account settings, there is a new section called ‘Manage Third Party Apps’ under profile settings. Once you click on this new link a page titled ‘Security’ offers two different tabs, one of which allows you to manage how you sign in to your Tesla account, but more importantly there is also a tab called third-party apps. This new feature, first spotted by NotATeslaApp, appears to have not officially launched yet as there is no way to add or manage third-party apps, but it is a sign that you will soon be able to.
Allowing third-party apps access to your Tesla account and data associated with your vehicle is nothing new. There are numerous apps currently available that do this, like Teslascope or TeslaFi, but the access is granted by giving out your username and password (extremely unsecure), or providing them with an access token (more secure).
While the details of this new method are still unclear, it will undoubtedly allow more safe and secure access to your account and data. It will also be much more convenient for owners as it will be a central place where you can see which apps you have given access to your account data to, and then easily remove them if you no longer want to grant them that access.
When this will launch is also unclear. One of the third-party companion apps we previously mentioned, Teslascope, says they haven’t received any details about the new program or how they could sign up to be a part of it. Whenever it does launch, we will likely see a slew of new third-party apps being developed that will only enhance the ownership experience.
