What is an API?
First, let's understand what an API is and how this change affects Instagram Feed Gallery plugin.
Instagram Feed Gallery uses the Instagram API to validate credentials from the users who are setting feeds on their Wordpress sites. This way, Instagram Feed Gallery can retrieve images and information from Instagram and them on the feed.
When does the change take place?
Even though initially it was going to happen in March 2020, Instagram finally postponed the launch of the new API to June 29th, 2020. This means that the remaining endpoints on the old Legacy API will no longer be available after this date and your users may lose some functionalities.
More details about the new Instagram API
Why did Instagram decide to Update their API?
The main objective of the new update is to create an API that enables consumer use-cases while protecting user privacy and safety.
Nowadays, data protection is one of the biggest challenges on social media, so this API modification focuses on dealing with this problem and helping all API users be compliant with GDPR.
And what does this change include?
- The new Instagram API introduces a new Basic Display API that requires all 3rd party apps and plugins to get permission to continue providing their functionalities.
- As the old API will be out of service from June 29th, the tokens need to be reconfigured using the new interface to validate the access.
- The new APIs have integrated Facebook Graph API. This means that Instagram will use the Facebook login for your end-users, requiring sites to manage Facebook authentication for a personal profile.
There are some differences between the new Instagram’s APIs. The possibility to retrieve data from Instagram differs depending on the user type. For example, on basic display (personal users), it won’t be able to recover:
- Number of likes and comments of the Instagram posts
- Number of followers
- Comments
- Date & data from tags
- User photo and bio text
Because these are considered personal data unless the users have a business public account. For same objective Instagram added on their API response an expiration date, to guarantee user continue giving access to share their data.
Instagram Feed Gallery is ready for these changes and offers the possibility to connect to the new Instagram API. So to continue displaying the Instagram feeds on your site, make sure you update your Instagram Feed Gallery plugin before June 29th.
