Is there still a way to fetch instagram feed without using access token now (06/2016)?

Question

I have an issue that my Instagram API access token keeps expiring frequently and I red the document and understood that although the token wouldn't expire generally, Instagram may decide to expire a token any time for any security reason or whatever reasons.

I know that when it expires, I need to set up an authentication process and request for a new token and all those of things. But the problem is that my app is just retrieving my own feeds to show on my own website, once the token expires it doesn't make sense to set up such a process, the only thing I can do is to manually retrieve and update the token in my code.

So I was wondering if there is still a way to get feeds without using access token as I am just pulling in my own feeds. Or is there any other way I can solve this issue?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

https://www.instagram.com/anyuser/media stopped working today. You can use https://www.instagram.com/anyuser/?__a=1 instead.

Answer 2

EDIT : you can now get the json data of your profile simply with this link : https://www.instagram.com/anyuser/?__a=1

---

If your profile is set to public mode you can fetch your data from json response just write: https://www.instagram.com/YOURUSERNAME/media

example: https://www.instagram.com/bestcookingvideos/media

you can see json structure with : http://json.parser.online.fr/

Note: This page is not active anymore : https://www.instagram.com/YOURUSERNAME/media

2020.11.17

As in the answer you can get the profile details with 12 recent post via https://www.instagram.com/anyuser/?__a=1 but the problem is that this does not allowed to fetch media pagination. So for that you need to use

https://instagram.com/graphql/query/?query_id=17888483320059182&variables={"id":"15165085906","first":20,"after":null}

Above route will return first 20 media of the relevant user who belongs to the id and when we need get next 20 we need to pass the end_cursor which is in initial call .

For more info ref related answer

Answer 3

2021 Update: Due to instagram latest changes, this is no longer a reliable solution.

Original Answer:

You can use this jquery library I developed:

https://github.com/BanNsS1/jquery.instagramFeed

No api token required

Edit for the coments below:

It's just jquery powered library that allows you to load the first 12 items of any public instagram profile.

How it solves the problem? Loading 1 to 12 last posts without requiring an access token/api key

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.instagramFeed.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    (function($){
        $(window).on('load', function(){
            $.instagramFeed({
                'username': 'instagram',
                'container': "#instagram-feed1",
                'display_profile': true,
                'display_biography': true,
                'display_gallery': true,
                'get_raw_json': false,
                'callback': null,
                'styling': true,
                'items': 8,
                'items_per_row': 4,
                'margin': 1 
            });
        });
    })(jQuery);
</script>

Want more? It will take 2 clicks and some scroll.

Answer 4

I've built a small SaaS that makes this dead simple: https://behold.so - it handles all the messy stuff with the new Instagram API, and just gives you a URL to a feed of posts as JSON. Like this: https://feeds.behold.so/zFgp2Jbbk23Ovf1ZUOhq

Once you have your feed URL, the code becomes trivial:

fetch('https://feeds.behold.so/xN3J7TZ59jIdH6IOWQ4d')
  .then(data => data.json())
  .then(photos => {
    photos.forEach(({
      id,             // The post ID
      mediaUrl,       // The image source
      permalink,      // URL of the Instagram post
      caption,        // Post caption
      mediaType,      // 'IMAGE', 'VIDEO', or 'CAROUSEL_ALBUM'
      thumbnailUrl,   // Only returned for video posts
      timestamp,      // Post publish date,
      children        // An array of CAROUSEL_ALBUM children. Each with id, mediaUrl, mediaType and thumbnailUrl
    }) => {

      // Step 3. Make magic happen...
      
    });
  });

Apologies for the self-promotion, but the truth is there just isn't a simple way around this issue in 2022. Meta made things intentionally very difficult.