Windows App Studio adds new features, removes Instagram data source

By John Callaham
last updated

Windows Store
Windows Store (Image credit: Windows Central)

Microsoft has updated its Windows App Studio tools, which allow anyone to make a Windows 10 app with no coding, with a number of new features. However, it has also removed the Instagram data source due to policy changes on the social network.

Microsoft stated:

Due to policy changes by Instagram, we were forced to remove the Instagram data source. They no longer want their users' content accessed outside of their 1st party apps without explicit permission, so they shut off the capability of other apps to consume Instagram content if the apps do not get prior approval. Sadly, this means that all current implementations of the Instagram data source no longer work and should be removed from your apps and projects.

The good news is that the updated version of Windows App Studio has a number of new features and improvements in this update. One of them is a REST API Data Source:

Much like the current RSS Data Source, this feature is open ended, meaning you can connect it to almost any open REST API service available on the internet. REST APIs are the backbone of how data gets passed around the web. If these are new concepts to you, an easy way to think about it is that APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) let different pieces of software talk to one another and REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architecturally structured way of "packaging" those data communications.

The new release lets users add more features to Hosted Web Apps that are made with Windows App Studio:

Today's release expands on the feature and lets you declare capabilities of your app, letting you can take advantage of the Windows 10 OS features with your server-side code so your web app can act like a native Windows UWP. You can now enable things like Live Tiles, Notifications, Cortana, and a lot more.

Check out Windows App Studio at Microsoft's site

John Callaham
John Callaham
37 Comments
  • Someone help a teacher here, explain the IG part please!!
  • Previously in Windows App Studio you could connect your app to Instagram and show your latest photos etc. Because Instagram now require permission for this kind of thing, the Instagram data source no longer works and you should remove it from your app(S) so users don't get error messages. Hope that helps! Posted from my Lumia 950
  • Instagram is cutting everyone off as they are removing the feeds from their API. Even FlipBoard has to remove it's Instragram section.
  • Hey what about those apps like unfollow spy and all other ones even they wont work now?? :/
  • June 1st was the cutoff date for apps using that were created before Nov 17, 2015 and did not get approval from Instagram. They have gone into "sandbox mode" for now, they could still get approval however.
  • oh ok I get it
  • Exactly
  • Sorry 6tag :(
  • If Rudy already had prior approval from Instagram then he's totally fine. :)
  • Heres hoping ** 950xl and loving it !!
  • Gladly it still working perfectly on mine. Just opened 6tag and able to comment, like and post new Instagram post. Even Live Tile shows new photos (which I wish that official Instagram have).
  • That will leave our apps completely unresponsive and out of touch, so this policy is real affecting how we build the interface on windows app studio but to an addition to that it is real calling the non coder-developer apps an unintelligent tech experts.
    so leave up to the regulations and terms of policies to the decide what is best for our projects!
  • Hey, I'm the product owner for Windows App Studio and this comment is my opinion on the issue (not Microsoft Corporation's).  You are not required to remove the Instagram data source from your projects.  You can still generate the source code solution, do the work in VS, and go through the registration process with Instagram for your app as developers still can.  The main issue for Windows App Studio's implementation of Instagram's data, is that we can't get all the created apps approved by Instagram ourselves, so each user would need to do it individually and manage the API keys and stuff differently.  We tried a number of options trying to make it a good user experience, but it just wasn't possible so we came to the unwanted conclusion that we needed to remove it.  I personally use Instagram a ton, so was upset that it's no longer possible to include in Windows App Studio as a data source.  If things change and we are able to bring it back, you can bet that we will.  But there is no policy or anything telling you to remove the Instagram data source from your apps, we just suggest that you should since they no longer work properly.
  • Hope 6tag is safe!!!
  • Well this is getting out of hand now, will we be restricted from using the social as well?
  • Certainly hope not .guess we await clarification ** 950xl and loving it !!
  • Opened mine and everything loaded right up!
  • Me too! Everything works perfectly as expected so far. I think Rudy still have permission to access the Instagram data source and hopefully it will work even with these changes.
  • I want my money back that I bought the app 6tag
  • Would not be Rudys fault ** 950xl and loving it !!
  • This has nothing to do with 6tag. It will only affect apps made with Windows App Studio.
  • Did you even try to open 6tag? I opened mine and everything is still working fine with it.
  • Yep I did but last post was 14 mins old, had no idea if missed anything :D ** 950xl and loving it !!
  • 6tag is an official app
  • Its an alternative to Instagram. 6tag being "official" here doesn't matter. #Lumia640XL
  • yep
  • So you bought 6tag few days, weeks, months or even years ago. It worked well for that time. Now, unfortunately, there is a chance it will not work in the future and you want your money back. That's ridiculous. It's not Rudy's fault, it's Instagram's decision. You WERE NOT forced to pay for 6tag. I paid to gain video uploads (it costs Rudy money, because videos are converted on servers he must pay, instead on our phones) and to support Rudy. He still deserves his money, because he worked on his apps for few past years.
  • 6tag still works for me, got "could not load data" error message with InstaSave, found an alternative with IntagramSaver.  
  • I suppose it was nice that Instagram released a mostly functional app for W10M then. Before that, the "beta" app from WP8 was insufficient. The W10M app is pretty good, though it has some sluggish and buggy behavior when it comes to posting photos. Share from Photos app doesn't always work, and sometimes Instagram's app gallery doesn't show the pictures you know you have and want to post. It's also really slow at doing this relative to Android and iOS. These are head-scratchers for me, as I wouldn't think these situations would be the biggest issues for an app such as this. 
  • Boohoo
  • Tried this studio back in wp8 times and couldn't make an app to save my life. Wanted a simple soundboard app. :/
  • You should try it again!  We've made a ton of improvements since those days.  A soundboard app is a use case we've been considering and hope to build out broader features that would enable that.  There are a couple of groundwork steps we need to do first though.  Building out features in a service that builds apps is naturally more complex than building the feature's output into a single app, so it requires a bit of non-trivial work.
  • Please could you consider developing the possibility to embed into an app some static content (e.g. sound files and images) as it was possible with the Siena tool? Thanks
  • You can embed images now with a collection.  The key would be to select "Static collection" instead of dynamic, which will have everything load in the app itself (meaning it doesn't need to pull from the web).  But with regards to other media, yes, that's something we want to do in the future.  :)
  • In menu actions, what are the possible custom action?
  • Yay this was my biggest disappointment when trying app studio. Felt too confined with the available sources. I wanted to be able to grab info from custom sources, now we can (disappointed no emoji allowed here :( )
  • I agree with you Windows 10