I have been using the Instagram API to get images and videos, which works just fine. I then noticed the oembed API call, which does not require an access_token, and I decided to give that a try, which also worked just great as the thumbnail_url size is adequate for most uses. However, I noticed that the images retrieved from an album, all have a thumbnail_url that returns a 5xx Error from Instagram.
My thinking is that:
a) This is exactly how it is supposed to work and if I want images from a gallery/album, I need to use the media API call and access_token like most normal people
b) There is a way to access all images from a gallery/album and I just don't know yet. What if I want to embed the album? If this is the case, how can I check if it is an album or single image before making an API call?
Here is what I have so far:
Instagram permalink for album/gallery: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTHpAmzDHKR/
OEMBED API call: https://api.instagram.com/oembed/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fp%2FBTHpAmzDHKR%2F
thumbnail_url returned: https://scontent-dft4-2.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s612x612/e35/18012162_1608580785827161_2716056344971968512_n.jpg
media API working url for same image:
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/18012162_1608580785827161_2716056344971968512_n.jpg
This opens up to a 5xx Server Error
Is it possible or not using oembed call?
NOTE: I am trying this just out of curiosity and not for any real app.
Closing this out as my research has shown that oembed is for single media type only, not for carousel/albums. Instagram API call which uses tokens is required.