Instagram scaled back access to its official APIs back in June, killing off the Ubuntu Phone’s native Instagram Scope in the process.
But FOSS fans of the photographic social network needn’t panic.
An all-new, native Instagram app is coming to Ubuntu Phone.
Instagraph
The app, called Instagraph, is an unofficial Instagram app for Ubuntu Phone that does more than just show photos.
Instagraph will allow you to take and upload photos to the hugely popular photo sharing service.
The app takes many of its cues from the official Instagram apps on Android and iOS, favouring clean lines, plenty of white space and clean, crisp iconography.
Many key Instagram features are available through the app, though most are in various stages of development and stability:
- Upload images
- Like & comment on images
- Download images to your device
- Search by username, keyword or hashtag
- View interactions on your own photos
- View other people’s profiles and photo stream (list or grid view)
- Follow accounts and manage your own profile
The bottom toolbar houses buttons for accessing all of the app’s key features — from viewing your stream to uploading photos to managing your notifications and interactions.
A link to your message inbox is located in the upper-right corner just like on the real client.
The app does not support photo editing (e.g., rotation, crop, brightness, etc.) or applying filter effects.
The developer says the in-app camera feature “is not good” and that it’s something he will need to work on.
Uploading images you’ve already taken or have stored locally on your device is, thankfully, ready and working.
The “Issue” of uploading
Instagram does not provide an official upload API to developers.
DeveloperTuran Mahmudov — the hands behind ‘PockIt’, a native Pocket client for Ubuntu touch devices — has built his app using an unofficial and unsupported private Instagram API maintained by mgp25.
Instagraph could, at any moment, be rendered un-functional, images uploaded using it deleted, and accounts banned. GitHub is a graveyard to abandoned and deprecated Instagram upload APIs.
First Alpha Coming Soon
Instagraph is a free open-source app. An alpha version should, Turan says, be available to install from the Ubuntu Store after the weekend.
I’ll be perfecting my selfie face in the meantime.
P.S. We’re on Instagram. We’re so hipster.
Images: Turan M.