Instagram Unveils ?iPhone Hooks? So Other Apps Can Play Nicely With Them

A few days ago, the iPhone app 100 Cameras in 1 got an update with a great new feature: the ability to send photos to Instagram. As GigaOm's Om Malik pointed out, this was the first outside app to gain such access. But that made it sound as if it was the first app to use a write version of Instagram's API. But Instagram actually doesn't have a write API yet (their API continues to be read-only). Instead, what they're doing with 100 Cameras in 1 is much more simple and clever. And they're now opening it up to everyone. This page (meant for developers) details the feature Instagram is calling "iPhone Hooks". Essentially what these do is allow any other iPhone app (remember, Instagram is still iPhone-only) to interact with the Instagram app. This can mean both opening the Instagram app to a certain photo, user, location, or tag. Or it can allow another app to open the app and load the Instagram camera immediately. Most importantly, it allows pictures taken with other apps to be seamlessly passed into the Instagram "sharing flow". This means a photo can be passed into the app right to the filter screen within Instagram.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DTVCO0Qdf04/

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