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Instagram uploads return to third-party Windows Phone apps

Facebook-owned photo-sharing service apparently issues another update to its spam filters, allowing unsupported third-party apps to resume uploads.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
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Instagram has apparently issued a reprieve of sorts to third-party Windows Phone apps using its API.

Instagram, which doesn't work with Windows Phone 8, recently made alterations that resulted in customers of third-party apps being unable to upload pictures to the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service. While Instagram was immediately suspected of singling out the third-party apps, the company issued a statement Tuesday indicating that it recently made changes to its spam filters to increase security.

But another update this week has further revised those filters, allowing third-party Windows Phone apps to resume photo uploading, The Verge reported Wednesday. The blog confirmed that images uploaded on the third-party apps were once again appearing on the site but noted that Instagram frequently updates its spam filters and that future revisions could once again cut off third-party app uploads.

Instagram offers versions for iOS and Android, but it has so far declined to support Windows Phone 8, leading third-party app developers to use Instagram's private application programming interface to reverse engineer the uploading process. Instagram's lack of support led some to believe that Instagram was targeting third-party Windows Phone apps when images uploaded by one of those apps recently began disappearing from the photo-sharing site moments after upload.

CNET has contacted Facebook for comment and will update this report when we learn more.