When you offer your users the ability to upload files, they’re going to want to bring those files from wherever they live right now. Sure, users can download files to their local computer or device, then upload them from there. But the ability to upload Instagram user photos to your site directly is a vital feature, as that particular service makes it extremely difficult to download even your own content in a useful manner.
Fortunately, with Filestack’s convenient File Picker, allowing users to connect to their Instagram account and import their photos to your site couldn’t be simpler. You don’t have to wire anything up, or write any code beyond adding the picker to a web page (or app) and keeping track of the File Handles assigned to each upload. As with importing Facebook photos, it’s built in and turned on by default.
Here you can see the hover view when the Picker is in embedded mode on a web page. Third party services like Facebook and Instagram will show a “disconnect” link next to the service name if the user has already authorized Filestack as a connection with that account, allowing them to conveniently de-auth with a single click.
Keep in mind that you are ingesting these user photos to your Filestack app, not linking to their Instagram copy. Photos that are thus ingested now live in your storage, and are being served on your CDN once you link them up to display. Because of this, Instagram is no longer watching over the usage, and it is up to you to make sure your users have the experience they expect when it comes to their privacy and usage rights.
Users that have authorized the Filestack app via the File Picker will be able to view Filestack listed as one of their “Authorized Applications” when they visit their account management page on Instagram.com:
https://www.instagram.com/accounts/manage_access/
This is a powerful, lightning-fast, zero code solution for authorizing and obtaining these photos, without having to download Instagram photos as a bundle to the user’s machine.
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