Final Reminder: Instagram Legacy API Platform will be disabled on March 31, 2020

March 30, 2020 Update: We understand these are challenging times for our developer community, so we are postponing disabling the Instagram Legacy API Platform by 90 days to June 29, 2020. Remaining endpoints on the Legacy API will no longer be available after this date and your app’s users may lose functionality. We urge you to migrate to the Instagram Basic Display API without delay so that Instagram users of your app have time to transition as well. Please see below for tips on getting through our App Review process.

As we previously shared, we’d like to remind you that the final Instagram Legacy API permission ("Basic Permission") will be disabled on March 31, 2020. Any apps that remain on the Legacy API as of March 31 will no longer have access. As of March 31, developers previously using the Legacy API should instead rely on Instagram Basic Display API and Instagram Graph API.

Migrating off the Legacy API

To avoid disruption of service to your app and business, please apply for permissions to Basic Display API via App Review and migrate Legacy API calls before March 31. Note that App Review submissions can take up to a week or longer to process. Check our developer documentation for Basic Display API and App Review to learn more.

App Review Tips

Please take a moment to review some common mistakes we’ve seen in App Review submissions for Basic Display API that can lead to rejection:

Mistake #1: Your app uses Basic Display API for authenticating users

Instagram Basic Display API is not an authentication tool and cannot be used to authenticate or log users into your app.

Tips

• Make sure your app provides a login option that does not use Basic Display API, such as your own in-house login flow or Facebook Login. If implementing Facebook Login, refer to this sample App Review submission for guidance.
• Show the user a button to connect their Instagram account only after the user has logged into your app.
• Ensure your app clearly shows that the authorization process has been completed, such as displaying the Instagram account’s username or media within your app.

Mistake #2: Your App Review submission does not clearly demonstrate your use case

Your submission will be rejected if it does not clearly show how your app uses the requested permissions.

Tip

• Make sure the video screencast you submit in the App Review submission is clear, detailed, and easy to follow so that our App Reviewers are able to reproduce your use case. For guidance, refer to our best practices for recording a screencast.

For more tips and tools, please refer to our App Review Rejection Results Guide, Common App Review Rejection Reasons, and Developer Tools page.

Note

If you’re using the Legacy API to simply display your personal Instagram Feed on your personal website, you may use the User Token Generator on the Instagram Basic Display API. The User Token Generator does not require App Review, but it will only work for your owned Instagram accounts (i.e. accounts for which you know the login credentials). Please refer to the User Token Generator developer documentation to learn more.

As always, thank you for being part of our developer ecosystem and helping make Instagram a vibrant community for people, businesses, and creators.