What happened to the other Instagram features on Crowdfire?

Update 6: 2 AM PST Jan 23 - We're turning off older Instagram features and rolling out new ones

Morning folks! In update 5 we had set Jan 17th as the day to turn off the older Instagram features on Crowdfire to comply with Instagram's new policy changes. We managed to extend this by a few days so we could answer all the questions you wrote in with about these changes.

Today, 45 days after we first announced these changes by Instagram, we're finally turning off the older Instagram features for users on the Paid plans as well, and rolling out some brand new features for your account. When you next fire up your Crowdfire app, you will notice that several of the older Instagram features (Non-Followers, Fans, Recent Unfollowers, Recent Followers, Friend Check, Whitelist, Blacklist, Admirers & All Following) will not be accessible anymore. The Publish feature is not affected by this change.

Meanwhile, we've been hard at work on the new features and have rolled out some major developments on Crowdfire. We're now more focused on bringing about all round growth to your social presence that centres on building genuine engagement within your online community. If you've updated to the latest version of the app, you've probably already experienced Publish for Facebook, Smart Posts for Shopify, Wordpress and Etsy, as well as Instagram Image Recommendations. We've received some great feedback so far and we're excited to roll these out to everyone who has the app installed in the coming week!

We've even put out a blog post detailing what we've been working on - http://crwd.fr/wholenewcf

Before that, we had another blog post on The Future of Instagram - http://crwd.fr/igfuture

This should give you a better insight of where we're heading and why we want you to be alongside us on this incredible journey while we roll these features out to you. We'll continue to work hard on perfecting these features and promise to give you the best growth experience on Instagram using Crowdfire.

Update 5: 4:15 AM PST Jan 11 - More clarity on the future of Instagram on Crowdfire

Hello! Due to the holiday season, understandably, Instagram took sometime to get back to some of our emails.
We now have almost complete clarity on the future of the current Instagram features and how their removal affects you.

In the previous update we wrote about how we've had to remove several features immediately if you are in the Free Plan. While we waited for Instagram to get back to us on how much longer we could support this for users on the Paid subscriptions.

Starting 6th January 2017, as a Free user, when you upgrade to any of the paid subscriptions, you'll be able to use ALL the Twitter features as well as Publish for Instgram but not the older Instagram features. So if you are a Free user today and want to upgrade to a Paid subscription purely for the follower relationship features, we recommend you hold back your subscription for a little longer till we roll out the next set of Instagram features.

If you are a user on one of Crowdfire's paid subscriptions (Pluto, Earth, Neptune, Jupiter, Pro or Premium), you will continue to see the older Instagram follower relationship features as well, but these features will soon begin to be rolled off. Keeping in line with Instagram timelines, we will have to remove the features by next week. We haven't been given a specific date by Instagram for this roll off, but, internally, we've set the 17th of Jan 2017 as the date by which we should be removing these features to comply with Instagram's changes.

We can completely understand how you feel about this change. It’s how we feel as well. We’re doing our best to make sure we continue to support your growth. In fact, like we mentioned in a previous update, we've already been hard at work bringing you new features. Bigger and better things are coming your way starting next week on Crowdfire!

Here's a sneak peak -

• Instagram Image Recommendations - Crowdfire will recommend fresh images every day to keep your account active and get you the right followers
• Crowdfire Creators program - if you've posted great images to Instagram using Publish, Crowdfire will recommend them as part of Image Recommendations. People sharing the post tag you and get your account noticed by all their followers
• Publish on Facebook and Pinterest - post to more of your networks from Crowdfire!
• Smart Posts for Etsy, Shopify, and Wordpress - Crowdfire will create beautiful posts featuring content from your blog or online shop and get you even more traffic online

We're turning the page and adding a new chapter in the Crowdfire story - all driven by our promise to you. And this is just the beginning. Join us in this journey to go big online with your new marketing sidekick.

We've also put together a blog post around The Future of Instagram on Crowdfire - https://blog.crowdfireapp.com/the-future-of-instagram-on-crowdfire-b310d1ad587d

As always, Our entire team is right here for you - If you need to get in touch about anything, Please write to us via the Help & Support option from within the iOS, Android & Web App. This gives us more details about your accounts and helps us solve issues faster than direct emails. Due to the large volumes we expect, it might take us some time to reply directly, but we promise to get back to you as soon as we possibly can!

Once again, Thank you so much for understanding. We are so grateful to have you as part of the Crowdfire community!

Update 4: 3 AM PST Dec 14 - We're waiting on more details

In update 3 we informed you that we've sent IG a reply asking for more details on the timelines for the changes.

IG's taking a little longer than expected to get back, probably because of the weekend that followed our previous email :)

We'll send in a follow up email today and let you know when we have a reply.

Update 3: 12:10 PM PST Dec 10 - All Features are temporarily restored for users on Paid Plans

Some hours ago, we got a reply from Instagram that indicates we are being given more time to provide all the Instagram features to our users.

In view of this, we've immediately made all the Instagram features live again for all our users on the PAID plans. If you are on the website or iOS app - you'll see the features live again immediately. If you are on the android app - please update to the latest version of the app (2.13.2).

We've asked Instagram to allow us to keep the features for at least all our users on the paid plans live until at least the end of your current subscription month since you've already paid for it. This will also give you enough time to Cancel your subscription and not be charged next month onwards in case you decide to not use the upcoming Instagram features or any of the Twitter features. Please give us a few more days to get more clarity from Instagram on how much longer we can keep the features live. We'll probably also be sending out an email next week to all our users with more on this.

For our users on the Free Plan - We're so sorry but we're still not able to bring back any of the features, even temporarily. This is to reduce the usage of the Instagram API for the moment, while we wait to hear back from them.

We know all this can be quite confusing, but we're trying to be as open and transparent about all that's been happening on our end. Please continue following our updates here for the latest on this.

Update 2: 9:50 PM PST Dec 9 - Getting back to you

Understandably, we've been getting a bunch of emails with your questions around this. Please allow us a little longer to get back to you. We promise to get back to each one of the messages and resolve every problem we can - especially the ones around your payments and subscription. We've setup a squad within our support team that's fully dedicated to getting back to you about this. We will be prioritizing support to all our paid users first. We're also touched by the support received from many of you after this change by Instagram. We're thankful for all the kind words and patience and so grateful to have you as part of our community :)

Many of you have also been asking us if there is any indication on whether the features affected by the change will return in the next update. We had written to Instagram for more details and clarity about the future of these features. As of right now we have no indication on when or if the features will be supported by Instagram again. We will also be resubmitting Crowdfire to Instagram for their review within the next few days. We're working round the clock on all the changes so we can roll them out on our Android, iOS and Web Apps asap.

Update 1: 12 AM PST Dec 9 - Instagram features removal

Folks, yesterday we received an email from Instagram about their API.

Long story short - Instagram no longer supports most of the features on Crowdfire and has asked us to make changes to our mobile and web apps within the next 24 hours. This came to us like a bolt out of the blue. More so, because we had already received an approval from Instagram in April this year for all the features after we submitted the App for their review.

Once we got past the shock, our next obvious priority was to reach out to you as soon as possible on what's been happening and how it affects you as a user of the Instagram features on Crowdfire.

How this affects you -

Starting today, Crowdfire can no longer support the following Instagram features -

• Non Followers
• Fans
• Recent Unfollowers
• Recent Followers
• Friend Check
• Whitelist
• Blacklist
• All Following 

We've had to remove these features immediately in order to comply with Instagram's changes.

When you login to Crowdfire next, you may either face errors when accessing these features or not see these features altogether.

We're also moving all our Instagram users to the New Version of Crowdfire. This version was in a limited beta release over the last couple of months and we had planned to release this to all our users in Jan '17. We've decided to advance this move. The next time you login to Crowdfire, it is possible that you will be greeted by the new awesome version of Crowdfire with the Crowdfire marketing bot!

How this does not affect you -

• This change does not affect logging into your Crowdfire account using the Instagram option.
• The Publish feature and the Admirers feature is not affected by this change either.
• All Twitter features will work normally and are completely unaffected by this development.

The future of Instagram growth on Crowdfire -

In spite of this setback, the future remains bright with Crowdfire. We'll be working closely with Instagram on building the next set of features. After all, making it big on Instagram is more about the small wins than an instant mass following. Which is why we want to assure you that your progress won't stop! API restrictions shouldn't stop anyone from achieving their growth goals!

We'll continue working hard on giving you the best marketing results on Instagram, regardless of these features no longer being supported. We're determined on finding a way for you to grow the right way.  

So we're going to go back to the drawing board - give us four weeks to build something new, something better (Facebook and Etsy integrations are already on their way!). We know we can do it. In fact, within 24 hours, we've already built a new feature for Instagram - Nudge - to engage with 5 people who follow you daily.

You will now get a Daily Report Card with the number of your Followers and Unfollowers on Instagram for that day.

For now, this is all the information we have on this development. We'll share more details with you as and when we hear back from Instagram.

If you have a Twitter account, make sure you connect your Twitter account to Crowdfire. This will help you grow faster!

Understandably, many of you will have questions around this. Please write to us via the Help & Support option from within the iOS, Android & Web App.

This gives us more details about your accounts and helps us solve issues faster than direct emails.

Due to the large volumes we expect, it will take us some time to reply, but we promise to take care of all our users!

Thank you for understanding and we are always grateful to have you as part of the Crowdfire Community!