Third-party Instagram apps are breaking as multiple outlets report the company is limiting access to API data.
Apps developed by third-parties may perform functions such as analyzing followers, finding relevant hashtags, or identifying which users are following back.
Third-party apps rely on being able to access data from Instagram’s API (application programming interface). If Instagram cuts off access to that data, then those apps can no longer do what they’ve been designed to.
Well, according to outlets like TechCrunch and Re/code, that’s exactly what has happened. TechCrunch reports that Instagram has shrunk the API limit from 5,000 to 200 calls per user per hour.
Instagram has refused to comment on these reports, other than to confirm it has stopped accepting submissions of new apps. Developers were given no notice of these changes, leaving them understandably upset.
This change may have been made as a privacy measure, given the trouble parent company Facebook has found itself in recently with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Instagram previously gave notice that it was planning to scale back access to its API within the next 2 years. No one expected it to happen so soon.
