Windows Phone app, Instance, blocked due to Instagram General Security Update

New reports show that Instance, a popular unofficial Windows Phone Instagram app, was being blocked by Instagram due to a General Security Update...

Anujeet Majumdar|Jul 31, 2013, 08:57:06 IST

It has earlier been reported that Instagram, the photo-sharing app, was possibly tracking and deleting photos being uploaded to its servers from third-party Windows Phone apps. TechnoBuffalo has now reported that the Facebook-owned company may not have purposely been blocking any such uploads after all.

The news first broke yesterday when Daniel Grey, the developer of Instance, a popular unofficial Windows Phone Instagram app, tweeted saying that photos being uploaded from the app seems to be disappearing. This was intriguing, because other third-party apps like Instagraph and Hipstamatic Oggl have not complained of any such problem. The reason for the selective treatment against Instance, according to Instagram, was caused by a routine security update.

A company representative was reported saying that, “We recently made an update to the systems that we use to fight spam to help prevent future attacks and increase security. As part of this, applications accessing Instagram against the terms of our API may also be affected. This update does not specifically target any particular app or platform.” You can't

Instagram was blocking Instance due to a General Secuirty Update

Instance, unlike many other similar Windows Phonw 8 apps, functions by subverting Instagram’s API to bypass its security system and upload photos to its servers. That was the reason why the update, when it rolled out, selected all Instance-uploaded photos as spam and deleted them. The developer has also tweeting the same, acknowledging that is was an Instagram back-end change that caused Instance-uploaded images to stick.

Haha, apparently I didn't do anything. Instagram changed something on the backend and it made my images stick at least.
— Daniel Gary (@danielgary) July 30, 2013

While it is still not known if Instagram knew that that its update would affect Instance, it is clear that the company noticed all the attention that the news generated online. According to the source report, a second update was rolled out some time back which now lets users upload their photos from the Windows Phone app, but is still blocking them from showing up in other user’s feeds.