Instagram: Share photo from webpage
Updated June 2020
It is no longer possible... allegedly. If you have a Facebook or Instagram dedicated contact (because you work in either a big agency or with a big client) it may potentially be possible depending on your use case, but it's highly discouraged.
Before December 2019:
It is now "possible":
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-api/content-publishing
The Content Publishing API is a subset of Instagram Graph API endpoints that allow you to publish media objects. Publishing media objects with this API is a two step process — you first create a media object container, then publish the container on your Business Account.
Its worth noting that "The Content Publishing API is in closed beta with Facebook Marketing Partners and Instagram Partners only. We are not accepting new applicants at this time." from https://stackoverflow.com/a/49677468/445887
Uploading on Instagram is possible. Their API provides a media upload endpoint, even if it's not documented.
POST https://instagram.com/api/v1/media/upload/
Check this code for example https://code.google.com/p/twitubas/source/browse/common/instagram.php
The short answer is: No. The only way to post images is through the mobile app.
From the Instagram API documentation: http://instagram.com/developer/endpoints/media/
At this time, uploading via the API is not possible. We made a conscious choice not to add this for the following reasons:
- Instagram is about your life on the go – we hope to encourage photos from within the app. However, in the future we may give whitelist access to individual apps on a case by case basis.
- We want to fight spam & low quality photos. Once we allow uploading from other sources, it's harder to control what comes into the Instagram ecosystem.
All this being said, we're working on ways to ensure users have a consistent and high-quality experience on our platform.