Third-Party Instagram Apps and Websites Cease to Work

Last November, Instagram announced much stricter rules for accessing its API, effectively putting an end to dozens of both legitimate and questionable third-party apps and websites that integrated with the photo sharing service on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices.

Instagram began reviewing new and existing apps before granting full API access starting December 3, 2015, but the changes for apps created before November 17, 2015 only went into effect on Wednesday, rendering any remaining third-party apps that implemented photo feeds virtually useless.

Third-party websites that enabled users to search Instagram photos and hashtags, such as Gramfeed and Mixagram, also ceased functioning on June 1.

“Goodbye! As of June 1st 2016, Gramfeed will no longer function. To conform with the Instagram API Platform changes, Gramfeed had to be transitioned to a new service called Picodash and is focused on providing the search and social media management functionality to brands, publishers and journalists.”

Instagram’s new Platform Policy is available on its developer website.

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Paris looks to Instagrammers to boost city museum visits

Maybe you’ve heard of the term ‘influencer.’ It’s the moniker marketers have given to the heavy hitters of social media with their considerable follower counts (often in the tens or hundreds of thousands). You know, the Kendall and Gigis currently dominating our modern world. Well, Paris Musées, the public institution that oversees 14 of the city’s municipal museums, has cottoned on to this new media wave and is turning to Instagram as a platform to raise awareness and boost museum attendance. To promote its recently launched site, which houses a searchable digital collection of all the museums’ works, Paris Musées has commissioned 10 Instagrammers from various art backgrounds to recreate or reinterpret some of these iconic works.

The campaign, created in a partnership with digital agency Kindai, has hard data on social media influence to back it up. In 2014, the agency published a study which found that cultural institutions in France benefitted the most from an associated Instagram post — accounting for about 53 percent of related Instagrammer visits. Philippe Rivière, the head of Digital Service at Paris Musées, said that while he hopes younger generations will be inspired by the campaign, the idea behind the collaborations was really “to reach a diverse audience while keeping the artistry and aesthetics” of the collections intact.

To do this, Paris Musées matched up its ten influential Instagrammers, culled from various artistic disciplines like fashion, humor, illustration, photography, with a notable work emblematic of a particular museum. This process, which Rivière said some museums found to be challenging, often resulted in several works being pulled for an artist’s consideration. “Some museums like Cernuschi do not have [an] easy piece of art to remake,” he says. “In this case, we had to find creative Instagrameurs, in this case Rafael Mantesso, to provide a completely different view.”

The resulting collection of Instagrammer reinterpretations will be on display from May 11th to July 31st at Paris’ Gare Saint-Lazare train station. And if you happen to swing by the exhibit, don’t hesitate to pull out your smartphone and add your own twist to the Instagram installation. Paris Musées is encouraging passersby to contribute their own takes on the city of light’s hallowed art and use the hashtag #ParallelesParisMusées.

“Paris is fortunate to be one of the cultural cities of the world,” says Rivière. “That said, everyone does not have the opportunity to go there, even living in France … This platform can be a way of preparing [for] the visit or even make you want to visit a particular museum.”

Source: Paris Musées Collections

Instagram Updated With Brand New Icon and Flat Design

Instagram has been updated today with an all-new colorful icon, moving away from its iconic brown and beige logo that still had an iOS 6-style skeuomorphic design long after many popular developers have since adopted flatter aesthetics.

“Today we’re introducing a new look,” the company wrote in a blog post. “You’ll see an updated icon and app design for Instagram. Inspired by the previous app icon, the new one represents a simpler camera and the rainbow lives on in gradient form.”

The app itself has also received a major redesign with a flatter black and white appearance in line with the overall look of iOS 9. Instagram says “the simpler app design puts the focus on your posts and keeps your features in the same place.”

Instagram is free on the App Store for iPhone. The version 8.0 update should be rolling out worldwide for all users today. Instagram’s other apps Layout, Boomerang, and Hyperlapse have also received new icons.

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