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Instagram, instead of focusing on making important improvements to its own app and platform, decide to clone Snapchat. Color me surprised. Things that are shit

Instagram, instead of focusing on making important improvements to its own app and platform, decide to clone Snapchat. Color me surprised. Things that are shit with IG and still require attention: - there is no real onboarding experience [1] - good luck contacting a human that works at Instagram with a support query as a user [2] - good luck contacting a human that works at Instagram with a support query as a developer [2] - developer libraries are abandoned [3] - the API is a joke. - There is still a lack of support for HD photography. - The 3rd party developer experience is ... well ask some of your peers and you'll quickly find out. [1] Someone at Instagram, for the love of the internet just do some reading up on this. Here's an article to get you started: https://medium.com/@scottbelsky/crafting-the-first-mile-of-product-7ed25e8f1027#.s8mqxfdna https://medium.com/@scottbelsky/crafting-the-first-mile-of-p... [2] unless you stalk them on Twitter. That's not creepy at all though, is it? [3] https://github.com/facebookarchive/instagram-ruby-gem https://github.com/facebookarchive/instagram-ruby-gem

svens_ 10y ago
Can you elaborate a bit on your developer experience? I've started building an app for Instagram and would like to know. Apart from the newly introduced sandbox and app approval requirements I haven't noticed any major pain points yet. It's true that most libraries are only seldom updated, but on the other hand the API doesn't change much and it's REST with OAuth after all.
- Yabood 10y ago
  We went through the Instagram approval process about a week ago, and it was fine. The API itself is pretty good I think, and has a pretty good coverage of their platform functionality. New sandbox and approvals are bit more limiting than the previous version, but it was ok in general. Our application was approved for all requested permissions in less than two days.
  - svens_ 10y ago
    Thank you, this is very useful information. That's pretty quick actually, didn't expect that they'd be so fast. Edit: I'd be pretty interested if other developers could share their experience with the approval process too.
    - detaro 10y ago
      Seems to depend on the type of service: Several services I know of that did sync between Instagram and other services got all their requests denied.
- tcdent 10y ago
  In addition to other major legal restrictions, the latest API update crossed a line for accessing your own posts; now you can only retrieve 20 of the most recent entries and pagination has been disabled. Yes, Instagram legally owns your data, but now they are actively preventing you from accessing it as well.
  - svens_ 10y ago
    Are you implying that the /users/self/media/recent endpoint now ignores the count, min_id and max_id parameters?
    - tedmiston 10y ago
      It appears that the result set is overridden in sandbox mode. https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/ https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/
  - iancarroll 10y ago
    Isn't that only for applications in sandbox mode?
    - Yabood 10y ago
      Yes, only in sandbox mode. Once your app goes live, the 20 post limit is removed.
      - tcdent 10y ago
        Have you gone through the approval process? The accepted use cases are very restrictive, and specifically do not support allowing you to access more than 20 of your own posts. "I want to display hashtag content and public content on my website." "This use case is not supported. We do not approve the public_content permission for one-off projects such as displaying hashtag based content on your website. As alternative solution, you can show your own Instagram content, or find a company that offers this type of service (content discover, moderation, and display)."
overcast 10y ago
Considering Instagram was founded on ruining pictures with crappy filters, I doubt HD photos are anywhere on their radar.
- pconner 10y ago
  Plenty of "real" photographers use Instagram now (and have for several years).
  - overcast 10y ago
    For marketing, which has been positive for a lot of artists. It's definitely allowed people to get their works out there, but let's not act like it's for serious photography.
    - elithrar 10y ago
      > but let's not act like it's for serious photography. I (strongly) disagree. There is some incredible work on Instagram from (many) thousands of 'amateur' and professional photographers alike. "Serious photography" isn't just restricted to DSLRs/MF/etc. In many ways, the constraints of mobile photography (lower res, fixed focal length, small viewport when consuming) has benefits, just like constraints elsewhere in photography. (I follow many photographers who primarily or solely publish to Instagram; many who aren't marketing their paid services.)
      - overcast 10y ago
        They are using Instagram as an easy publishing platform. It's assured the big ones find it very lucrative. The biggest issue with Instagram is all of the bullshit accounts with millions of users, that are just posting the work of other artists with a "credit" if they are lucky.
        tedmiston 10y ago
        Aggregator accounts have positive effects on the community too, especially when it comes to discovery. They're not all bad.
ArmandGrillet 10y ago
One more thing to add on your list: spamming is ruining the entire experience. For a company that sells AI as the next big thing, not being able to detect accounts following 5000 people, having 8 followers and posting thousands of comments "GET 1000 FOLLOWERS ON [URL]" every day is kind of a joke.
- Yhippa 10y ago
  I want to upvote this twice. This is the single biggest dissatisfier I have with Instagram. I've given up on blocking and reporting fake or spammy users.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  As someone with a small-medium sized account (~2k followers), I currently get ~10–20 spam followers per week. I aggressively report as spam + block, but it's a nuisance. Their reporting flow has so many taps and steps that it feels like it's designed to be inefficient to give them less requests.
DAddYE 10y ago
Add to this list this awful new trend (twitter does that too) that every time I open instagram they "suggest" someone to follow. I think I follow like 40 ppl. More than enough for me. Not for them.
DAddYE 10y ago
Add to this list this awful new trend (twitter does that too) that every time I open instagram they "suggest" someone to follow. I think I follow like 40 ppl. More than enough for me. Not for them.
tedmiston 10y ago
> - There is still a lack of support for HD photography. Another is support for panoramas is nonexistent. They've abandoned the square format already, but there's still currently a minimum w:h ratio.

svens_ 10y ago

Can you elaborate a bit on your developer experience? I've started building an app for Instagram and would like to know. Apart from the newly introduced sandbox and app approval requirements I haven't noticed any major pain points yet. It's true that most libraries are only seldom updated, but on the other hand the API doesn't change much and it's REST with OAuth after all.

Yabood 10y ago
We went through the Instagram approval process about a week ago, and it was fine. The API itself is pretty good I think, and has a pretty good coverage of their platform functionality. New sandbox and approvals are bit more limiting than the previous version, but it was ok in general. Our application was approved for all requested permissions in less than two days.
- svens_ 10y ago
  Thank you, this is very useful information. That's pretty quick actually, didn't expect that they'd be so fast. Edit: I'd be pretty interested if other developers could share their experience with the approval process too.
  - detaro 10y ago
    Seems to depend on the type of service: Several services I know of that did sync between Instagram and other services got all their requests denied.
tcdent 10y ago
In addition to other major legal restrictions, the latest API update crossed a line for accessing your own posts; now you can only retrieve 20 of the most recent entries and pagination has been disabled. Yes, Instagram legally owns your data, but now they are actively preventing you from accessing it as well.
- svens_ 10y ago
  Are you implying that the /users/self/media/recent endpoint now ignores the count, min_id and max_id parameters?
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    It appears that the result set is overridden in sandbox mode. https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/ https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/
- iancarroll 10y ago
  Isn't that only for applications in sandbox mode?
  - Yabood 10y ago
    Yes, only in sandbox mode. Once your app goes live, the 20 post limit is removed.
    - tcdent 10y ago
      Have you gone through the approval process? The accepted use cases are very restrictive, and specifically do not support allowing you to access more than 20 of your own posts. "I want to display hashtag content and public content on my website." "This use case is not supported. We do not approve the public_content permission for one-off projects such as displaying hashtag based content on your website. As alternative solution, you can show your own Instagram content, or find a company that offers this type of service (content discover, moderation, and display)."

overcast 10y ago

Considering Instagram was founded on ruining pictures with crappy filters, I doubt HD photos are anywhere on their radar.

pconner 10y ago
Plenty of "real" photographers use Instagram now (and have for several years).
- overcast 10y ago
  For marketing, which has been positive for a lot of artists. It's definitely allowed people to get their works out there, but let's not act like it's for serious photography.
  - elithrar 10y ago
    > but let's not act like it's for serious photography. I (strongly) disagree. There is some incredible work on Instagram from (many) thousands of 'amateur' and professional photographers alike. "Serious photography" isn't just restricted to DSLRs/MF/etc. In many ways, the constraints of mobile photography (lower res, fixed focal length, small viewport when consuming) has benefits, just like constraints elsewhere in photography. (I follow many photographers who primarily or solely publish to Instagram; many who aren't marketing their paid services.)
    - overcast 10y ago
      They are using Instagram as an easy publishing platform. It's assured the big ones find it very lucrative. The biggest issue with Instagram is all of the bullshit accounts with millions of users, that are just posting the work of other artists with a "credit" if they are lucky.
      - tedmiston 10y ago
        Aggregator accounts have positive effects on the community too, especially when it comes to discovery. They're not all bad.

ArmandGrillet 10y ago

One more thing to add on your list: spamming is ruining the entire experience. For a company that sells AI as the next big thing, not being able to detect accounts following 5000 people, having 8 followers and posting thousands of comments "GET 1000 FOLLOWERS ON [URL]" every day is kind of a joke.

Yhippa 10y ago
I want to upvote this twice. This is the single biggest dissatisfier I have with Instagram. I've given up on blocking and reporting fake or spammy users.
tedmiston 10y ago
As someone with a small-medium sized account (~2k followers), I currently get ~10–20 spam followers per week. I aggressively report as spam + block, but it's a nuisance. Their reporting flow has so many taps and steps that it feels like it's designed to be inefficient to give them less requests.

DAddYE 10y ago

Add to this list this awful new trend (twitter does that too) that every time I open instagram they "suggest" someone to follow. I think I follow like 40 ppl. More than enough for me. Not for them.

DAddYE 10y ago

Add to this list this awful new trend (twitter does that too) that every time I open instagram they "suggest" someone to follow. I think I follow like 40 ppl. More than enough for me. Not for them.

tedmiston 10y ago

> - There is still a lack of support for HD photography. Another is support for panoramas is nonexistent. They've abandoned the square format already, but there's still currently a minimum w:h ratio.