I can see from the instagram api docs that you can search for users based on a username, but does anyone know if it possible to search based on a real name, for example:
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=Joe+Bloggs&access_token={ACCESS-TOKEN}
From what I can currently see, there is no implementation (though they have it on their front page search) and no plans to release it.
Has anyone seen an implementation to solve this?
Yes you can search real name and API returns results. I have implemented user search on https://www.picodash.com
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=Joe+Bloggs&access_token={ACCESS-TOKEN}
or
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=Joe%20Bloggs&access_token={ACCESS-TOKEN}