I was tasked to develop a web application that has an instagram module in it. The module is supposed to do the following:
1. Display the logged in user timeline
2. Allow user to like and unlike a photo
3. Allow user to comment on a photo
My question is: will the app get approved upon submission or will it be rejected because it replicates original features?
Thanks
There is no API to get user timeline any more, it was deprecated June 1, 2016.
You probably wont get approval since you can do the same on instagram.com, why dont you just use that?
If your app is doing something significant that cannot be done with Instagram app, then there is a chance you will get approved
Related
This is now the 4th time I am sending my app for review. I want to use Instagram Basic Display API and therefore require instagram_graph_user_media permission to access media (and incidentally instagram_graph_user_profile). I have 2 test users, my personal IG account with a bunch of pics and a test user that I created with an empty feed. I can login with both users. But when the Instagram app reviewer is logging in, my app can't access their media. I successfully retrieve the access token but when comes the time to call the Graph API here is what happens:
https://graph.instagram.com/me/media?fields=media_type,media_url,permalink,thumbnail_url&access_token=IGQV....
returns
{"error":{"message":"Application does not have permission for this action","type":"IGApiException","code":10,"fbtrace_id":"A99vuaAC41DSvlt0Hxvcly-"}}
Here is an update from my latest app review rejection. This time, I added the code above to catch code 10 errors and if I did, try to fetch the user profile data. Guess what, that failed with a code 10 error as well. So, whatever the app reviewer is doing, it is granting access to neither the profile or the media API.
Another update. The reviewer I had this time sent me two screenshots, one of the Instagram login screen and one of my app's error screen. Interestingly, the Instagram login screen had a strange Instagram username that I have never heard of before. It certainly wasn't my test Instagram account. So I now have evidence of them both using my test account and their own special test accounts.
The question in my mind now is, is there something special about their test accounts that ruins the process? After all, I have not added them to be testers of my app, although if someone who hasn't accepted my test invite tries to log in, it errors in an entirely different way.
I am running out of ideas here. My next thing to try is to exchange the short-lived access token for a long-lived token, as well as trying to use the new access token to server-side (where I exchange the code for the access token) to check if the access token ever works or if it is created with insufficient access.
This whole process is a nightmare.
I will put this as an answer because we have dealt with this thing now for over 2 weeks and quite a few submissions. I think you should remove the bounty though.
What you have done so far:
Created and approved IG test accounts
Double and triple checked parameters & permission
Tested your app a dozen times
Created dozens of screencast spoon-feeding, making sure a 5 yo kid would be able to test your app
Having the above, I am sure you noticed:
The reviewer will add a generic text as 'reject reason.'
The reviewer will submit the irrelevant and out-of-scope screenshot(s)
The reviewer will not test with the Instagram credentials provided.
Maybe he WILL test with the Instagram test credentials provided (in fact you're left in the dark as to how they actually simulate IG access)
The reviewer will claim he's unable to sign in using provided credentials
The reviewer claims having tested, but you see no traces in your DB whatsoever (would be smart to do so, to know whether they're actually doing something or not, up to a certain point)
Conclusion
You have to know that your app is at the reviewer's mercy and approval sometimes arbitrarily. Eventually, you will find your app being approved while having submitted it to change at all.
This should be obvious but when you are so deep in the hole and try to think why your app is being rejected you stop thinking logically.
Here is what I did:
Create a dummy Instagram account.
Link this account to an email provider that doesn't require a phone/another way of verification (I used ProtonMail).
Use an Instagram Tester account (do the whole process).
In your instructions let the reviewer that they need to log in to ProtonMail to get the Instagram confirmation code; since they will do login from an unknown location (if you could simulate the above in your screencast that would be great, but I didn't do it).
If you apply for both instagram_graph_user_profile and instagram_graph_user_media you need to do this in 2 steps individually.
The second step getting the instagram_graph_user_media permission is much easier.
I lost a couple of days and tried everything and anything before I realized that.
Hopefully, this should help someone that is having the same problem.
The app was approved the first time.
It is possible that the App Reviewer is unchecking the instagram_graph_user_media access in the authentication screen, thus giving you only access to instagram_graph_user_profile. I had the exact same error code being thrown back my way, and I did the following:
Catch the error code 10 error
Try to fetch the https://graph.instagram.com/me?fields=account_type,username&access_token=${accessToken}
If that works, then display a page that makes it clear that you have successfully connected to the Instagram User Profile (and here is your username and account type) but, if the user wants to do X they also need to approve media access, and here is a button to go and reauthenticate again.
See the image I have below.
Now, I did the above and I still got an app review failure of code 10, which means that the second fetch to only the username and account type failed, and I do not know how they could possibly have managed to do that.
They admitted issue but not fixed yet: https://developers.facebook.com/support/bugs/543633182940083/
To get approved for Instagram Basic Display:
create a Facebook test user
create an Instagram account with that FB test user
give the credentials (email/address) of the Facebook test user to the reviewer in the Instagram Basic Display submission
Basic Display API review process is so bad its beyond words. I have been hitting the brick wall of their rejections for 3 weeks and almost got bald by pulling my hair in frustration. You really have to read between the lines to get a hint of what they are doing.
Turns out what the reviewer was doing is selecting "Continue with Facebook" on the Instagram Login screen and going that route (via Facebook login) instead of entering the instagram credentials directly. Only once I realized that I was able to pin point the problem. Interestingly though testing on the Simulator was fine but the problem only became apparent once I tested on the real device. The reason - simulator doesn't have neither Facebook app nor Instagram app installed, so it behaves differently versus the device where these apps get involved in the flow via deep linking.
The bottom line:
Test on real device.
Make sure to test both the direct Instagram log in and the "Continue with Facebook" option.
Test on the device with and without the Facebook and/or Instagram app installed.
Make sure to use brand new instance of WKWebView with non persistent data store to bring up the login screen, so that it doesn't have any cookies from previous logins:
let configuration = WKWebViewConfiguration()
configuration.websiteDataStore = WKWebsiteDataStore.nonPersistent()
let webView = WKWebView(frame: .zero, configuration: configuration)
Pray the God of your choosing.
The problem is that in Manage Clients at https://www.instagram.com/developer/clients/manage/ client was created,
but it became invalid, the id did not work, i.e. instagram disabled it, the inscription was disabled.
We decided to delete the old client and create a new One, but instagram does not register it. The line of consent and the captcha does not issue. Respectively writes 2 errors:
1.Incorrect Captcha. Try again.
2.Error sending: fill in all required fields.
How can this be corrected?
I've had this same issue, and haven't been able to get anywhere with it. The support page for Instagram says to report a bug using the "Report Bug" button on the Developer Dashboard (http://instagram.com/developer/clients/manage/). If you click that button it takes you to a form that asks if you want to report a bug for the old API or new API. If you select the old API it says "we're not taking bug reports for the old API", if you select new API it takes you to Facebook's developer support page. I created a ticket there, and they told me I had to report it through Instagram's support links. WTF?? That's what I did .....
Anyways, the problem is related to a bunch of javascript errors on that client registration page. I first encountered this problem about 3-4 weeks ago, and it's still around. Feels like IG really doesn't give a crap about their developer community ....
So my app just got approved, but only with the basic scope. I am creating a MyFollowers app that track new, lost followers etc.. I added video showing my login. Then the amount of following, followers and posts. Then I showed sandbox users for not follow me back.
These are the scopes I need: basic+follower_list+public_content+relationships
Any ideas what to do to get more scopes accepted?
From the Instagram page:
As of 10/1/2017, all permissions other than the basic permission will be unavailable to submit for or obtain.
If you need these permissions you would have to use the new Instagram graph API wich works only for instagram business accounts.
From my understanding, the basic permission ("basic - to read a user’s profile info and media"), which is the only one they are taking requests for now is for photo printing apps and apps like Tinder that retrieve photos.
I have been reading up on this the last few days and can't seem to find much else on the basic permission and how else it may apply, e.g. displaying posts, mind some forums say it doesn't allow this.
However If you look at this link they seem to be getting the thumbs up http://www.iamspecialized.com
Also, Tinder enables users to display 20 (i think) photos directly from Instagram which of course links the viewer to Instagram if they wish, thus they are displaying posts in a way.
See also https://vibbi.com which displays public profiles and posts.
From what sites I've seen with approval, and what I have read, it appears to me that the clause: "to read a user’s profile info and media" is quite broad so that Instagram have discretion as to who they approve. So, if you're not putting forward a great product built on a big budget, then you're likely not to be approved. IMO.
I will be going through the permission process next year. Would love to hear from others who have done so.
Before the Instagram policy changes (which made on June 1, 2016) my application showed a list of all the following users' info of the logged in user. I get this by the following URL GET request:
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/self/follows?access_token=ACCESS-TOKEN
After the changes, I get a list of only the Sandbox users the logged on user is following after. (I added Sandbox user to keep developing this app).
But, in fact, I want to get all the users' info the logged on user is following after.
If it only happens in Sandbox environment it's OK but what about the production environment?
After I submitted my app, can I get all the following list? Or I'll get only the users who logged in to my app (like Facebook does)?
Thank You
Krisrak's answer is correct, sandbox mode is why you are not seeing results. Here's a bit more details on how it works:
NOTE: What follows is explained more clearly in this summary of how the new Instagram API rules
“Sandbox mode” is the (unintuitively-named) gatekeeper walling off
most of what you want to do. This is the default status for all
clients, that have not undergone the strict submission process. An API
client in sandbox mode has extremely limited permissions. In fact, it
has fewer permissions than an anonymous user viewing public content
because your app basically lives on a tiny desert island in which you
are the only Instagram user and only your past twenty posts exist. So,
for example, the /media/search endpoint will only return the media you
uploaded near a given location, excluding the media from everyone else
or any posts beyond your last twenty.
...
Sandbox users are other Instagram users that you “invite” to your
client. The main reason to do this is so that your app will then be
able to “see” their last twenty posts in addition to your own. In
other words, when they accept the invitation, they show up on the tiny
desert island where your app lives.
In production mode, you will see all the users, in sandbox mode you will only see the users that you have added to sandbox.
I was using the following api to get the latest 3 posts from public accounts to show on the website:
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/{user-id}/media/recent/?client_id={client-id}&count=3
I had created an app to get the client-id.
However from today, this API has started throwing the following exception:
{
meta: {
error_type: "OAuthAccessTokenException",
code: 400,
error_message: "The access_token provided is invalid."
}
}
Could you please let me know as how to resolve this?
Based on the date, you probably have an older app that got hit by the API migration today, like mine. In short, Instagram decided to make developing for their platform WAY more annoying by requiring all API requests to be authenticated per user, even for data that users shares publicly. So you (like me) will likely be redesigning you app entirely.
To tell, log in to instagram.com/developer and click manage clients; then hit edit next to the set of keys your're trying to use. Up near the top, it will have a section called 'Client Status' -- if yours reads 'Sandbox Mode', fun times ahead! Hopefully you interact with less than 10 users and can stay in sandbox mode, otherwise you'll have to write an essay, film a video, and basically plead to get your permissions back (probably in a few months, when some Instagram intern finally digs his way down to you in the pile of applications). If it reads something eles, you've got another problem altogether and should thank your lucky stars.
In the meantime, I guess I'll get back to sending out dozens of emails to the maintainers of our many, many affiliated Instagram accounts to explain the issue and try to get permissions, so provided we get approved by then, all our social media displays aren't broken during a huge event Saturday. Another option might be to use the OAuth-less json response available here, but that might break terms of service.
I have a solution to this. If you are using the same code I am, which appears likely. I was pulling the last two images using this.
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/{user-id}/media/recent/?client_id={client-id}&count=3
What I did to get this working is the following.
Login to your Instragram account you are using as the application.
Go to the developer (API) area. https://www.instagram.com/developer/clients/manage/
Manage clients. Make sure your website URL is the same as your valid redirect URL.
Add new Sandbox User. Put in the account of the IG photos you want to reach.
Hit this URL: https://api.instagram.com/oauth/authorize/?client_id=CLIENTID&redirect_uri=REDIRECT_URI&response_type=token where the client ID is the same one you used in your previous app above.
You should get back and access token URL. Copy your access token.
Login as your account that you want the IG photos of. The account you added as a sandbox user and go to developer and approve the Sandbox Invites.
Change your original URL above from https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/{user-id}/media/recent/?client_id={client-id}&count=3 to https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/self/media/recent/?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN with your access token.
This is the IG API Media endpoint documentation: https://www.instagram.com/developer/endpoints/users/
After that, it all worked for me and while you are in the sandbox, you should be able to pull the last 3 photos or at this point, figure out how to read the JSON to do so.
Has your app been approved after the June 1st Instagram platform changes?
http://developers.instagram.com/post/145262544121/instagram-platform-update-effective-june-1-2016
If you want to retrieve the user media file then try this, It's working for me
https://graph.instagram.com/me/media?fields=id,caption,media_url,media_type&access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN
For some reason the token is no more valid. Request it again.
Possible reasons why a token is no more valid:
changed password
verified the account
logged-in from a different country