Is Instagram turning its back on third-party app Instance?
Instance creator Daniel Gary claims Instagram is deleting uploads from his app, which enables Windows Phone users to use Instagram.
Instagram's native application doesn't work with Windows Phone 8. And if a new report is true, it appears Instagram wants no part in allowing other app providers to use its private API to create their own alternative.
Speaking to The Verge in an interview published on Tuesday, Daniel Gary, the creator of Instance, a third-party Windows Phone app, says that Instagram has stopped allowing his app's customers from uploading pictures to the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service.
According to Gary, he used Instagram's private API to reverse engineer the uploading process and allow Windows Phone users to snap pictures and share them on the social service. However, Instagram recently began "detecting when photos are not uploading via the official app," Gary told The Verge. After Instance users upload images, it takes only a few seconds for those pictures to be removed and the links pointing to them to stop working.
Instagram offers versions for iOS and Android. It has so far declined to support Windows Phone 8.
In an e-mailed statement to CNET, an Instagram spokesperson wouldn't comment on Instance, saying only that "we recently made an update to the systems that we use to fight spam to help prevent future attacks and increase security."
Update, 8:38 a.m. PT: Added Instagram's response.