I am using the Instagram API in an app to see photos of other Instagrammers.
If an Instagram account is private those photos cannot be seen and this makes sense. However, if that private Instagram has accepted the follow request of the user (access token) requesting their media, then that media should be available (right?) but I am still receiving an error when making the request.
I am using this request endpoint:
https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/PRIVATE_PROFILE_ID/media/recent/
?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN_OF_USER_THAT_IS_ALLOWED_TO_FOLLOW_PRIVATE_PROFILE
Is it simply the case that the API doesn't grant access to private profiles regardless of whether the requesting access token has permission to follow that profile or not?
A similar question was asked here but not really answered
As of June 1st 2016, the API no longer allows access to private profiles even if the API request is made using a access_token of user that is approved to access the private profile.