Turns out Instagram isn’t kingmaking among the third-party developer community on Windows Phone.
Today the Windows Phone community is buzzing with the news of a meeting between developer Rudy Huyn and Instagram that has led some to believe his forthcoming application for Microsoft’s smartphone platform will carry some sort of blessing from the photo sharing social network.
Here’s WPCentral on the forthcoming app, called #6tagram:
The app won’t be “official” but it will get to wear the title “Supported by Instagram” on its sleeve, making this app the first fully featured Instagram client for Windows Phone that has Instagram’s blessing.
That almost sounds like a wink-wink sort of endorsement. I reached out to Instagram, and was told via a spokesperson that the company has “not selected a third-party developer to build an official or unofficial Windows Phone app.” So, whatever sort of meeting took place, it has not led to Huyn’s upcoming application landing any sort of special treatment, or status.
The spokesperson continued: “Third–party apps wishing to use our platform must do so within the terms of our public API.” Screenshots of the app that Huyn is working on do appear quite nice, and if you are on Windows Phone and wish to use Instagram, it could be a viable option for you.
However, it will have to live on its own merits, and not with extra updraft from Instagram itself. This matters because if Instagram started to pick favorites on platforms that it doesn’t formally support, it could chill developer activity. There are shared overtones there with Twitter and its choice to later impose its own clients as official, crowding out third-party talent. This is precisely what Instagram is not doing on Windows Phone, at least not yet.
Though, I suspect that whenever Instagram does make the hop to Windows Phone, third-party clients will be effectively over. How about tomorrow, Instagram?
Update: And, just as I published the above, Huyn himself tweeted that indeed, his application will not be any sort of official app. Consider this case closed.
Top Image Credit: Vernon Chan