ig

🖼 A minimal R client for interacting with Instagram’s public API.

Installation

You can install {ig} from Github with:

devtools::install_github("mkearney/ig")

Authorization

To become authorized to interact with Instagram’s API, users must first go here and create an Instagram app. Once you’ve created an app, copy the Client ID and Client Secret keys¹ from the app’s page and pass them along to ig_create_token().

## use client_id and client_secret to create and save access token
ig_create_token("pb112zgv5065tu60pxnqvp88f6hovbur", 
  "drz97x61d9s5g2nlcu87v63mdphiedcv")

It’s not necessary to specify your token in each request (ig functions actually do that in the background for you), but if you’d like to view your access token, use ig_token().

## view your access token
ig_token()
#>                                         access_token 
#> "877861763.6001s28.4d8i211p0sf942o0394x5d4kwdk831l1" 

The rest of the token process is automated for you (you don’t need to reference it again).

Endpoints

There are numerous API endpoints, but thanks to recent changes by Instagram, most users won’t get access to large amounts of public data (at least not without first going through a strict submission process). Here are some that should still work though:

users/self

## get your instagram data
me <- ig_users_self()

## view data
ig_as_tbl(me)
#>  $ meta
#>    $ code: 200
#>  $ data
#>    $ class: list
#>    $ dims: 8
#> # A tibble: 1 x 7
#>   id     username  profile_picture     full_name bio   website is_business
#>   <chr>  <chr>     <chr>               <chr>     <chr> <chr>   <lgl>      
#> 1 17517… mike_way… https://scontent.c… Mike Kea… ""    ""      FALSE

users/self/media/recent

## get your media data
my_media <- ig_users_self_media_recent()

## view data
ig_as_tbl(my_media)
#>  $ pagination
#>    $ :
#>  $ meta
#>    $ code: 200
#>  $ data
#>    $ class: data.frame
#>    $ dims: 20 obs x 17 vars
#> # A tibble: 20 x 7
#>    id      created_time user_has_liked filter  type  link      attribution
#>  * <chr>   <chr>        <lgl>          <chr>   <chr> <chr>     <lgl>      
#>  1 185256… 1535062605   FALSE          Mayfair video https://… NA         
#>  2 180444… 1529326616   FALSE          Mayfair image https://… NA         
#>  3 179014… 1527621830   FALSE          Normal  caro… https://… NA         
#>  4 179013… 1527620656   FALSE          Aden    image https://… NA         
#>  5 178929… 1527520024   FALSE          Normal  caro… https://… NA         
#>  6 176788… 1524968858   FALSE          Normal  caro… https://… NA         
#>  7 176336… 1524428978   FALSE          Reyes   image https://… NA         
#>  8 175704… 1523676268   FALSE          Crema   image https://… NA         
#>  9 175306… 1523201331   FALSE          Normal  image https://… NA         
#> 10 174821… 1522623997   FALSE          X-Pro … image https://… NA         
#> 11 174766… 1522558145   FALSE          X-Pro … image https://… NA         
#> 12 174614… 1522376529   FALSE          Normal  image https://… NA         
#> 13 174610… 1522372473   FALSE          Crema   image https://… NA         
#> 14 174289… 1521989375   FALSE          Normal  caro… https://… NA         
#> 15 157920… 1502475629   FALSE          Hudson  image https://… NA         
#> 16 157561… 1502047616   FALSE          Normal  image https://… NA         
#> 17 156859… 1501210853   FALSE          Juno    image https://… NA         
#> 18 151477… 1494795791   FALSE          Sierra  video https://… NA         
#> 19 139544… 1480569623   FALSE          X-Pro … image https://… NA         
#> 20 134541… 1474605839   FALSE          Sierra  image https://… NA

tags/{tags-name}

## get tags data
ig_tags <- ig_tags(tag = "metoo")

## view data
ig_as_tbl(ig_tags)
#>  $ meta
#>    $ code: 200
#>  $ data
#>    $ class: list
#>    $ dims: 2
#> # A tibble: 1 x 2
#>   name  media_count
#>   <chr>       <int>
#> 1 metoo     1308164

tags/search

## search tags data
ig_tags <- ig_tags_search(q = "metoo")

## view data
ig_as_tbl(ig_tags)
#>  $ meta
#>    $ code: 200
#>  $ data
#>    $ class: data.frame
#>    $ dims: 50 obs x 2 vars
#> # A tibble: 50 x 2
#>    name          media_count
#>  * <chr>               <int>
#>  1 metoo             1308164
#>  2 metoomovement       30830
#>  3 metoodoll           29311
#>  4 metoo❤️             26961
#>  5 metoodolls          10851
#>  6 metooo               2427
#>  7 metooangela         10647
#>  8 metootoys            4628
#>  9 metoosweden          2390
#> 10 metoobebek            908
#> # ... with 40 more rows

Additional endpoints

To send requests to additional endpoints, supply the path and any relevant query parameters to either ig_api_get() or ig_api_post().

## make custom request to locations/search endpoint
ig_locs <- ig_api_get("locations/search", lat = 48.858844, lng = 2.294351)

## view data
ig_as_tbl(ig_locs)
#>  $ meta
#>    $ code: 200
#>  $ data
#>    $ class: data.frame
#>    $ dims: 20 obs x 4 vars
#> # A tibble: 20 x 4
#>    id            name                                   latitude longitude
#>  * <chr>         <chr>                                     <dbl>     <dbl>
#>  1 2593354       Tour Eiffel                                48.9      2.29
#>  2 104259689917… Effile Tower Paris                         48.9      2.30
#>  3 6889842       Paris, France                              48.9      2.35
#>  4 6889842       Paris, France                              48.9      2.35
#>  5 767158323476… Eiffel Tower, Paris                        48.9      2.30
#>  6 389164438201… Tour Eiffel France.                        48.9      2.29
#>  7 213790743     58 Tour Eiffel                             48.9      2.29
#>  8 151174985     Avenue des Champs-Élysées                  48.9      2.30
#>  9 372828359     Ile-de-France, France                      48.7      2.71
#> 10 117355320610… Berges de Seine                            48.9      2.29
#> 11 299133962     Omaha Beach France                         48.9      2.29
#> 12 32251308      Champs Elysees Paris                       48.9      2.30
#> 13 791265207706… Torre Eiffel                               48.9      2.30
#> 14 191378744556… Torre Eiffel, Paris                        48.9      2.32
#> 15 299202480461… Le Jules Verné Michelin Paris              48.9      2.29
#> 16 521850351502… Torre eiffel                               48.9      2.30
#> 17 467705676894… Le Jules Verne Par Alain Ducasse, Tou…     48.9      2.30
#> 18 432536411     Dinner At 58 Tour Eiffel Tower, Paris…     48.9      2.29
#> 19 256703907     Boat Ride Down The Seine River             48.9      2.29
#> 20 375269519489… Paris                                     -20.2    -70.2

¹NOTE: All keys provided in examples are fake but are otherwise designed to appear similar to the actual keys assigned by Instagram.