
A More Open Platform: The Instagram API - atularora
http://instagr.am/blog/40/instagram-api
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chapel
I don't understand why companies don't make Android apps a priority right off
the bat. Unless you are making an app that you plan to sell, most times you
will get just as good or better traction on Android.

Look at Angry Birds (edge case, not exactly a great example) and how moving to
Android caused them to move to advertising, which ended up making them more
money and moving that model to the iPhone.

I think it is bad that there is this mentality that there is iPhone and then
there are smart phones. The iPhone shouldn't get any special treatment,
because at the end of the day it provides the same thing most any Android
phone will.

Now that I realized that this has nothing to do with the OP, I have to say
that it is good that Instagram has an API.

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awolf
Instagram picked up 100,000 users in its first week and a million in its first
month as an iOS exclusive. Do you think it would have done that on Android? I
don't.

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chapel
Depends on how it was marketed. The reason Instagram went viral is because it
is one of those apps that has a network built around it. You share pictures
with people, so you have to get other people to install the app so you can
share it. Of course it will go viral. I think it is short sighted and plain
dumb to think that sticking to just one platform would net you more users? Not
to mention, developing for Android using C++ is a viable option now, so it is
even easier to port iOS apps over.

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awolf
Do you think it's short sighted and just plain dumb to _initially_ focus on
the one platform that gives the highest chance of going viral? I don't.

I think this is why Instagram didn't make Android a priority right off the
bat.

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BarkMore
Instagram is inviting people to signup for access to the API. The API does not
appear to be available yet.

Picplz launched their API today (the actual API, not an invitation).

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dalton
yep, here it is: <https://sites.google.com/site/picplzapi/home>

We also released some code samples and a jquery plugin:
<https://github.com/mxml>

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albemuth
I feel tempted to try to build an Android viewer, but then again the official
app could be on the way soon...

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awolf
There is still room for a new type of viewer. Currently the only way to browse
Instagram is by what has been recently popular.

