One of the most controversial and discussed themes within Instagram’s business community (developers, social media managers, entrepreneurs) is web-posting.
If you use Instagram professionally, intensively or even frequently, there’s a high chance you’ve already wondered, “Why on earth am I confined to Instagram’s official app on my mobile to post pictures?”
Whether you are a professional photographer having to edit and bounce his content around multiple platforms, a business requiring frequent posting of “complex” content or a publication requiring the increased efficiency of a complete work station rather than a smartphone, one thing is sure: you are not alone.
As consistency is often viewed as a crucial factor in social media success and growth, a small issue such as this leveraged by, well basically your commitment, has quite an impact.
Among all the 3rd party platforms and features out there, only a handful offer the possibility to post from a computer. So why is it that you can monitor statistics, engage with users and modify your account from all these third party apps and website but rarely, if at all, complete Instagram’s essential function: sharing content?
The answer is pretty straightforward: Instagram doesn’t want you to.
Their API is at the core of this issue. An API, which stands for Application Program Interface, is basically how all the components of a software function and interact with each other to achieve a certain result. In this case, it’s all the behind the scenes magic happening when you touch the “upload” button on your device.
They have forbidden 3rd party media uploads using their API as well as reverse engineering of what they consider their “Private API”. They therefore track and monitor access and operations coming from the non-official app, not without consequences. The implications of allowing this would reach further than convenience. It’s not a stretch to suppose that having its 300m+ monthly active users abandon their official app in favor of third party access providers isn’t the best of news for them. Especially now that their until-recently-private API has for a large part been disclosed, making potential reverse engineering that much easier. They have therefore also made it clear that they do not want automated posting systems, a natural follow up since this can’t be done from within their app.
Furthermore, this would defeat the original purpose of Instagram: taking, editing and uploading photos directly from your phone. That’s where the name Instagram comes from, a combination of Kodak’s Instamatic and the word Telegram. Instant and shareable.
Although this usage obviously isn’t the case for a majority of users, it can’t be officially condoned. Their strict dedication to monitoring their API and maintaining a faux-semblant of etiquette can be found in one of the notoriously most under-read and overlooked documents in the history of electronics: terms and conditions of use.
Services breaching their terms and conditions will get shut down within a couple months and their users will basically get shadowbanned. This ranges from their hashtags and accounts not appearing in the search page and their posts not appearing to anybody but their followers, to the inability to follow other users, and any “part of the service” in between. And the penalty is permanent. A quick search shows that numerous users are facing the same issues and unfortunately, the same lack of assistance from the Instagram team.
This doesn’t mean that it will happen to you, we’re just saying that it is within Instagram’s self-prescribed rights to do so and that there are precedents.
It’s also rather bad news for Windows phone owners wishing to use IG, as they don’t have their dedicated app yet. After the shutdown of Instance, an app enabling Instagram, users are left with no solutions. As an official Instagram spokesperson put it “We are currently working on making the iPhone and Android experiences as solid as possible. Only then will we consider other platforms, but currently we have nothing to announce.”
Back to the point, can you post from the web, using a non-mobile device?
Not all access providers and 3rd party apps are equal in regards to the aforementioned terms of use. Nonetheless, here are the options at your disposition should you be willing to play with fire. You should take a look at Instagram’s Terms and Conditions before using any of the below so you understand any risks you may be taking (and also what you actually signed up for).
Gramblr: A free desktop posting tool. Not a smooth user experience (no alt-tabbing it, stays in front of taskbar, etc.) but easy to use, upload and share your photos. Images have to be pre-edited, filters included, and fitted to IG’s 640×640 format as it has none of these options. Definitely breaches a bunch of the terms of use and albeit users successfully uploading their content, it might result in them getting shadowbanned. A risky bet for anybody with valuable account.
Interesting fact: the licence states that “images included in this directory are protected by copyright controlled by … Nokia Corporation”, who have famously been trying to bring Instagram to Windows phone with their #2InstaWithLove campaign.
BlueStacks App Player: A free emulator, which allows you to run a program resembling an Android OS on your PC. From there you can download Instagram via its integrated search function and go about business as usual accessing and monitoring your account. To upload content you’ll have to go the extra step and de-activate Instagram’s “advanced camera” options. You’ll also need to get an uploader such as “File Expert” or “Media Sync” unless you are planning on posting webcam selfies indefinitely. It gets the job done but might be a hassle as a long term solution as users report a certain number of technical issues with both the emulator and the uploader. It’s also probably in a (dark) grey area regarding Instagram’s ToS. At least now can you play Angry Birds on your PC.
Latergram.me: A free and premium web and mobile app that allows you to schedule and bulk post your content from both platforms. The post is then pushed to your mobile device where you’ll need to confirm the upload. In a (light) grey area which allows you to get the job done on your PC or wherever, as long as you have an insta-approved platform with the official app handy to remain within the realm of legality.
InPic: InstaPic for Windows 8: A “full featured instagram client” which includes uploading. Got shut down for Windows phone but seems to still be available for Windows 8. Probably not in line with Instagram’s terms.
Onlypult/Instapult: A subscription service which offers online scheduling, web-posting and multiple accounts management. What you would be looking for if it wasn’t a clear breach of the terms of use as the Russian programmers at its origin have cleverly reverse-engineered the API.
Schedugram: Subscription service which allows you to schedule, edit and (bulk) “post” from your PC. Well technically you aren’t posting although you are the one preparing the posts, be it from a PC or other. They have a physical infrastructure in their Melbourne offices which literally consists of mobile devices posting your content as programmed via the sanctioned Instagram app, which allows them to remain in the clear regarding the terms of use. Might have some issues with the brand name but that’s a triviality. Mobile app in the works. Our personal favorite.
If you’re on the creative side, you can cook up a IFTTT recipe to automate the process to a certain extent.
As a last resort, there is the plain old manual way of transferring from your laptop to your phone. Automatically synchronizing cloud storage softwares such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Younity will ease the pain of emailing or Bluetoothing all your content individually.
To sum it all up, there are definitely ways to post from your laptop, but they don’t come with the expected ease of use and with a rather high risk in regards to the potential ROI, especially considering Instagram’s recent policy updates and their lack of flexibility and/or support in the matter.
Hopefully we were able to save you some time, nerves and maybe even your account. We’d love to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any updates on this article or solutions we haven’t heard of yet!
