Windows App Studio adds new features, removes Instagram data source

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