Facebook worked with Instagram on Open Graph implementation
updated 08:05 am EDT, Tue April 10, 2012
FB gave Instagram special help with Open Graph
Facebook had been working with Instagram for weeks before its acquisition of the start-up on the integration of Open Graph into its social photo sharing app. The two companies partnered on helping Instagram roll out Timeline integration to groups of users in deliberately managed stages without any user friction, according to Inside Facebook, which made the discovery. When an Instragram user completes the action “took a photo” it is posted to Facebook and, in particular a user's Timeline, without requiring re-authorization.
The addition of Open Graph to Instagram does not affect the way a user's Instagram's privacy controls are set, and users still have the option of whether they will share the photo to Facebook or not. However, if a user elects to share a photo on Facebook, the Open Graph capability optimizes photo formats and better organizes the way photos are displayed in a Facebook user's Timeline.
Although Instagram has had Facebook integration for some time (hence its popularity and subsequent acquisition by Facebook) the Open Graph action now helps to potentially drive greater adoption of the Instagram app. User photos are now published with accompanied by a caption “[User] took a photo with Instagram.”
Facebook has said that in addition to working with Instagram, it is “...currently working with a small set of partners to test extending the publish_stream permission to include the Open Graph publish_actions permission to enable apps to publish to Timeline.” It was not prepared to comment on whether other apps would be able to benefit in the way that Facebook has helped boost the profile of Instagram.
