Instagram cracks down on third-party apps
The photo-sharing platform is tightening the reins for security purposes, but it’s angering developers in the process.
The Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform, which surpassed Twitter in user numbers this year, recently updated its platform policy. It provides clear guidelines on who is able to use Instagram’s API.
(The API, for those wondering, is what allows third-party application programmers and developers to access photos and data from Instagram for use in their own applications.)
An Instagram blog post says services that can tap into their data fire hose are apps that:
Though the move is intended to deny access to malicious third-party apps that might seek to hack its users, decent ones will inevitably be affected. No matter how good Instagram’s intentions are in maintaining its brand integrity with this move, it’s bound to anger some developers. Others see it as a wise move; check out a few of the reactions on Twitter:
An interesting fact about @SpreesyCO – We send over 25,000,000 API requests to @instagram per day for the 25k businesses using us. #startups
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