Programatically upload pictures on Instagram workaround

Question

How do services like posts.so, gramblr and picturelife post pictures on Instagram programatically?

I know the Instagram API is limited and doesn't let you do this, but is there a workaround? There must be since all these services are doing it.

Links to the services:

https://posts.so/

http://gramblr.com/uploader/

They possibly store your Instagram password in their DB then use it to login and use the cookie? That sounds very scary and very illegal.

Solution

You cannot upload images via Instagram’s API.

Per Instagram's API documentation:

At this time, uploading via the API is not possible. We made a conscious choice not to add this for the following reasons...

While it is possible to use Instagram's private API to upload photos (you'd need to capture this information using a proxy server) it is a very quick way to get you instantly banned for life from using the API.

There are a handful of exceptions to this rule, Hipstamatic/Oggl being one of them. Whether or not posts.so is or not, I can't say, though I find it highly unlikely that they're authorized to do that they're doing. More-so with gramblr, their site is.. shady at best.

You can read a similar post here: Uploading photos to Instagram via your own iOS app