Here’s What It Means for You

Note: Later has access to the public Instagram API until April 30th, which is when you’ll notice some minor changes to our features.

What Instagram’s API Changes Mean For You

So what does all of this mean for you?

If you use any apps connected to Instagram, you’ll definitely notice a few changes, and some may not work at all. Because the new Instagram Graph API is much more restrictive than the older Instagram API platform, many apps that haven’t been approved by Instagram to use the new API suddenly lost their ability to access the API altogether.

However, the changes have also affected apps that have been approved by Instagram — although the impact is much less severe. Depending on the app, some features might have a more limited capacity while others could be shut off entirely.

Here’s some common changes that you’ll notice on Instagram:

First off, Instagram bots are officially dead. If you’re using any bots to follow and unfollow accounts for you, or like Instagram posts for you, they won’t work anymore. To get around this, some Instagram bots may be using a hacked version of the Instagram API, which we don’t recommend using. You might see lower engagement over the next few weeks, but now you can trust that most of the engagement and followers you get are real.

Your Instagram “likes” will now be private only to you, and other companies won’t be able to tell what posts you have liked or not. This has mainly affected a lot of shopping apps that helped you keep track of items you were interested in purchasing via your Instagram “likes.”

If you’re using any apps to analyze your Instagram followers, or someone else’s followers, these will no longer work. This mainly affects analytics companies that would give you information about your follower demographics or how quickly you gained/lost followers. This also affects any apps that would show you when someone unfollowed you.

For example, if you were using an app or service to evaluate whether an influencer’s followers were real or not, you won’t be able to do that anymore.

Another major change is that personal accounts won’t be able to post or delete comments from anywhere except the Instagram API. If you want to use community management features like Later’s Conversations, you’ll need to switch to an Instagram business profile.

If you’re a brand who uses apps to search for user-generated content on Instagram, like Later’s Search & Repost feature, you will be a bit more limited now. Instead of searching by users or posts you have liked, you can now only search by hashtag.

You can learn more about the minor changes coming to Later here.

Here’s all the technical details about what features (aka API endpoints) are now gone: