Comments Authenticated vs Anonymous

The comment list and detail APIs support both authenticated and anonymous requests. Authentication affects caching and personalization, but the response structure stays the same.

Authenticated requests

When an authentication token is provided, the response is never cached and is personalized for the current viewer:

• Reactions: reactions[].self_reacted_user_reaction_id contains the viewer's reaction ID, where applicable.
• Blocked authors: Comments from blocked authors are excluded. Blocking applies in either direction.
• Mentions: Mentions of blocked profiles are removed from mentions[]. Blocking applies in either direction.

Anonymous requests

When no authentication token is provided:

• Responses can be served from cache, providing significantly faster response times than authenticated requests.
• These requests would not count toward the client's metered requests, reducing overall costs
• Responses are not personalized: viewer-specific reaction IDs are null, and viewer-specific blocking rules are not applied.

Consistent response structure

No fields are added or removed based on authentication. Only field values and returned content differ, so clients can use the same response model for both modes.

For example, self_reacted_user_reaction_id is present in both responses but is null for anonymous requests.

Choosing a request mode

• Use authenticated requests when the experience depends on viewer-specific reactions and blocking rules.
• Use anonymous requests when faster responses and lower metered usage are more important than personalization.