InstaPy
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Automation Script for βfarmingβ Likes, Comments and Followers on Instagram
Implemented in Python using the Selenium module.
Think this tool is worth supporting?
Head over to https://github.com/timgrossmann/InstaPy/wiki/How-to-Contribute to find out how you can help. Become a part of InstaPy!
Have an issue
Head over to https://github.com/timgrossmann/InstaPy/wiki/Reporting-An-Issue to find out how to report this to us and get help.
Disclaimer: Please Note that this is a research project. I am by no means responsible for any usage of this tool. Use on your own behalf. Iβm also not responsible if your accounts get banned due to extensive use of this tool.
Social
InstaPy Twitter | My Twitter
How it works (Medium)
Check out the talk
Support InstaPy!
Example
from instapy import InstaPy
InstaPy(username='test', password='test')\
.login()\
.set_do_comment(True, percentage=10)\
.set_comments(['Cool!', 'Awesome!', 'Nice!'])\
.set_dont_include(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'])\
.set_dont_like(['food', 'girl', 'hot'])\
.set_ignore_if_contains(['pizza'])\
.like_by_tags(['dog', '#cat'], amount=100)\
.end()
How not to be banned ?
Built-in delays prevent your account from getting banned. (Just make sure you don't like 1000s of post/day)
Getting started
Guides:
For a start you need:
- To have Python 2.7 or 3.6 installed.
- Set up path for PY command.
- Installed Selenium and pyvirtualdriver.
Make sure to get the right chromedriver
for your system from here. Just put it in /assets
.
If you're not too familiar with code and you're working on Windows, try out this tool to set up the settings: InstaPy Windows GUI
Start
1. git clone https://github.com/timgrossmann/InstaPy.git
2. cd InstaPy
3. pip install .
or
3. python setup.py install
API
Script file example
from instapy import InstaPy
#if you don't provide arguments, the script will look for INSTA_USER and INSTA_PW in the environment
session = InstaPy(username='test', password='test')
session.login()
#likes specified amount of posts for each hashtag in the array (the '#' is optional)
#in this case: 100 dog-posts and 100 cat-posts
session.like_by_tags(['#dog', 'cat'], amount=100)
#likes specified amount of posts for each location in the array
#in this case: 100 posts geotagged at the chrysler building and 100 posts geotagged at the salton sea
session.like_by_locations(['26429/chrysler-building/', '224442573/salton-sea/'], amount=100)
#gets tags from image passed as instagram-url and likes specified amount of images for each tag
session.like_from_image(url='www.instagram.com/p/BSrfITEFUAM/', amount=100)
#likes 100 posts for each tag of your latest image
session.like_from_image(amount=100)
#likes 50 photos of other animals
session.like_by_tags(['#animals'], amount=50, media='Photo')
session.like_from_image(url='www.instagram.com/image', amount=50, media='Photo')
#likes 15 videos of cats
session.like_by_tags(['#cat'], amount=15, media='Video')
session.like_from_image(url='www.instagram.com/image', amount=15, media='Video')
#Likes 10 random photo of geach given user
session.like_by_users(usernames=['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'], amount=10, random=True, media='Photo')
session.end()
If you want the script to get the username and password for your environment, you can do:
export INSTA_USER="<Your username>"
export INSTA_PW="<Your password>"
Commenting
#default enabled=False, ~ every 4th image will be commented on
session.set_do_comment(enabled=True, percentage=25)
session.set_comments(['Awesome', 'Really Cool', 'I like your stuff'])
# you can also set comments for specific media types (Photo / Video)
session.set_comments(['Nice shot!'], media='Photo')
session.set_comments(['Great Video!'], media='Video')
Following
#default enabled=False, follows ~ 10% of the users from the images, times=1 (only follows a user once (if unfollowed again))
session.set_do_follow(enabled=True, percentage=10, times=2)
Following by a list
#follows each account from a list of instagram nicknames (only follows a user once (if unfollowed again))
# would be useful for the precise targeting. For example, if one needs to get followbacks from followers of a chosen account/group of accounts.
accs = ['therock','natgeo']
session.follow_by_list(accs, times=1)
Follow someone else's followers
# Follows the followers of each given user
# The usernames can be either a list or a string
# The amount is for each account, in this case 30 users will be followed
# If random is false it will pick in a top-down fashion
# default sleep_delay=600 (10min) for every 10 user following, in this case sleep for 60 seconds
session.follow_user_followers(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'], amount=10, random=False, sleep_delay=60)
Follow users that someone else is following
# Follows the people that a given users are following
# The usernames can be either a list or a string
# The amount is for each account, in this case 30 users will be followed
# If random is false it will pick in a top-down fashion
# default sleep_delay=600 (10min) for every 10 user following, in this case sleep for 60 seconds
session.follow_user_following(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'], amount=10, random=False, sleep_delay=60)
Follow someone else's followers/following
# For 50% of the 30 newly followed, move to their profile
# and randomly choose 5 pictures to be liked.
# Take into account the other set options like the comment rate
# and the filtering for inappropriate words or users
session.set_user_interact(amount=5, random=True, percentage=50, media='Photo')
session.follow_user_followers(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'], amount=10, random=False, interact=True)
Interact with users that someone else is following
#Interact with the people that a given user is following
#set_do_comment, set_do_follow and set_do_like are applicable
session.set_user_interact(amount=5, random=True, percentage=50, media='Photo')
session.set_do_follow(enabled=False, percentage=70)
session.set_do_like(enabled=False, percentage=70)
session.set_comments(["Cool", "Super!"])
session.set_do_comment(enabled=True, percentage=80)
session.interact_user_following(['natgeo'], amount=10, random=True)
Interact with someone else's followers
#Interact with the people that a given user is following
#set_do_comment, set_do_follow and set_do_like are applicable
session.set_user_interact(amount=5, random=True, percentage=50, media='Photo')
session.set_do_follow(enabled=False, percentage=70)
session.set_do_like(enabled=False, percentage=70)
session.set_comments(["Cool", "Super!"])
session.set_do_comment(enabled=True, percentage=80)
session.interact_user_followers(['natgeo'], amount=10, random=True)
Unfollowing
#unfollows 10 of the accounts you're following -> instagram will only unfollow 10 before you'll be 'blocked for 10 minutes' (if you enter a higher number than 10 it will unfollow 10, then wait 10 minutes and will continue then)
# You can choose to only unfollow the user that Insta has followed by adding onlyInstapyFollowed = True otherwise it will unfollow all users
session.unfollow_users(amount=10, onlyInstapyFollowed = True )
Interactions based on the number of followers a user has
#This is used to check the number of followers a user has and if this number exceeds the number set then no further interaction happens
session.set_upper_follower_count(limit = 250)
#This is used to check the number of followers a user has and if this number does not pass the number set then no further interaction happens
session.set_lower_follower_count(limit = 1)
Locations
session.like_by_locations(['224442573/salton-sea/'], amount=100)
or
session.like_by_locations(['224442573'], amount=100)
You can find locations for the like_by_locations
function by:
- Browsing https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/
- Regular instagram search.
Example:
- Search 'Salton Sea' and select the result with a location icon
- The url is: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/224442573/salton-sea/
- Use everything after 'locations/' or just the number
Feeds
# This is used to perform likes on your own feeds
# amount=100 specifies how many total likes you want to perform
# random=True randomly skips posts to be liked on your feed
# unfollow=True unfollows the author of a post which was considered inappropriate
# interact=True visits the author's profile page of a certain post and likes a given number of his pictures, then returns to feed
session.like_by_feed(amount=100, randomize=True, unfollow=True, interact=True)
Restricting Likes
session.set_dont_like('#exactmatch', '[startswith', ']endswith', 'broadmatch')
.set_dont_like
searches the description and owner comments for hashtags and won't like the image if one of those hashtags are in there
You have 4 options to exclude posts from your InstaPy session:
- words starting with
#
will match only exact hashtags (e. g.#cat
matches#cat
, but not#catpic
) - words starting with
[
will match all hashtags starting with your word (e. g.[cat
matches#catpic
,#caturday
and so on) - words starting with
]
will match all hashtags ending with your word (e. g.]cat
matches#mycat
,#instacat
and so on) - words without these prefixes will match all hashtags that contain your word regardless if it is placed at the beginning, middle or end of the hashtag (e. g.
cat
will match#cat
,#mycat
,#caturday
,#rainingcatsanddogs
and so on)
Ignoring Users
#completely ignore liking images from certain users
session.set_ignore_users(['random_user', 'another_username'])
Ignoring Restrictions
#will ignore the don't like if the description contains
# one of the given words
session.set_ignore_if_contains(['glutenfree', 'french', 'tasty'])
Excluding friends
#will prevent commenting on and unfollowing your good friends (the images will still be liked)
session.set_dont_include(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'])
Follow/Unfollow/exclude not working?
If you notice that one or more of the above functionalities are not working as expected - e.g. you have specified:
session.set_do_follow(enabled=True, percentage=10, times=2)
but none of the profiles are being followed - or any such functionality is misbehaving - then one thing you should check is the position/order of such methods in your script. Essentially, all the set_*
methods have to be before like_by_tags
or like_by_locations
or unfollow
. This is also implicit in all the exmples and quickstart.py
Emoji Support
To use an emoji just add an u
in front of the opening apostrophe:
session.set_comments([u'This post is π₯',u'More emojis are always better π―',u'I love your posts πππ']);
or
session.set_comments([u'Emoji text codes are also supported :100: :thumbsup: :thumbs_up: \u2764 π―π―']);
Emoji text codes are implemented using 2 different naming codes. A complete list of emojis codes can be found on the Python Emoji Github, but you can use the alternate shorted naming scheme found for Emoji text codes here. Note: Every Emoji has not been tested. Please report any inconsistencies.
Legacy Emoji Support
You can still use Unicode strings in your comments, but there are some limitations.
You can use only Unicode characters with no more than 4 characters and you have to use the unicode code (e. g.
\u1234
). You find a list of emoji with unicode codes on Wikipedia, but there is also a list of working emoji in/assets
You have to convert your comment to Unicode. This can safely be done by adding an u in front of the opening apostrophe:
u'\u1234 some comment'
Running on a server
Use the nogui
parameter to interact with virtual display
session = InstaPy(username='test', password='test', nogui=True)
Automate
You can add InstaPy to your crontab, so that the script will be executed regularly. This is especially useful for servers, but be sure not to break Instagrams follow and like limits.
# Edit or create a crontab
crontab -e
# Add information to execute your InstaPy regularly.
# With cd you navigate to your InstaPy folder, with the part after && you execute your quickstart.py with python. Make sure that those paths match your environment.
45 */4 * * * cd /home/user/InstaPy && /usr/bin/python ./quickstart.py
Switching to Firefox
Chrome and ChromeDriver might be an issue on some ARM based systems. Alternatively, InstaPy provides support for Firefox as well. Most of the operating systems distributions already include Firefox and geckodriver.
Example with Firefox browser
from instapy import InstaPy
InstaPy(username='test', password='test', use_firefox=True, page_delay=25)\
.set_switch_language(False)\
.login()\
.set_do_comment(True, percentage=10) \
.set_comments(['Cool!', 'Awesome!', 'Nice!']) \
.set_dont_include(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3']) \
.set_dont_like(['food', 'girl', 'hot']) \
.like_by_tags(['dog', '#cat'], amount=2) \
.end()
Clarifai ImageAPI
Note: Head over to https://developer.clarifai.com/signup/ and create a free account, once youβre logged in go to https://developer.clarifai.com/account/applications/ and create a new application. You can find the client ID and Secret there. You get 5000 API-calls free/month.
If you want the script to get your Clarifai_ID and Clarifai_Secret for your environment, you can do:
export CLARIFAI_ID="<ProjectID>"
export CLARIFAI_SECRET="<Project Secret>"
Example with Imagecontent handling
from instapy import InstaPy
InstaPy(username='test', password='test')\
.login()\
.set_do_comment(True, percentage=10)\
.set_comments(['Cool!', 'Awesome!', 'Nice!'])\
.set_dont_include(['friend1', 'friend2', 'friend3'])\
.set_dont_like(['food', 'girl', 'hot'])\
.set_ignore_if_contains(['pizza'])\
.set_use_clarifai(enabled=True)\
.clarifai_check_img_for(['nsfw'])\
.clarifai_check_img_for(['food', 'lunch', 'dinner'], comment=True, comments=['Tasty!', 'Nice!', 'Yum!'])\
.like_by_tags(['dog', '#cat'], amount=100)\
.end()
Enabling Imagechecking
#default enabled=False , enables the checking with the clarifai api (image tagging)
#if secret and proj_id are not set, it will get the environment Variables
# 'Clarifai_SECRET' and 'CLARIFAI_ID'
session.set_use_clarifai(enabled=True, secret='xyz', proj_id='123')
Filtering inappropriate images
# uses the clarifai api to check if the image contains nsfw content
# -> won't comment if image is nsfw
session.clarifai_check_img_for(['nsfw'])
Specialized comments for images with specific content
#checks the image for keywords food and lunch, if both are found,
#comments with the given comments. If full_match is False (default), it only
# requires a single tag to match Clarifai results.
session.clarifai_check_img_for(['food', 'lunch'], comment=True, comments=['Tasty!', 'Yum!'], full_match=True)
Check out https://clarifai.com/demo to see some of the available tags.
Running with Docker microservices manual
Docker allows very easy and fast run of the instapy bot without any pain and tears.
0. Preparations
Install docker from the official website https://www.docker.com/
Install VNC viewer if you do not have one. For windows, a good program is http://www.tightvnc.com/
1. Set your instagram login and password
Open docker_quickstart.py
and fill the quotes after insta_username and insta_password with your credentials.
Don't forget to make other changes for the file as you want to. Read the documentation above for info.
2. Run and build containers with docker-compose
First you need to open your terminal, move to the root folder (usually with the cd
command) of instapy project and then type:
docker-compose up -d --build
That's all! At this step, you are already successfully running your personal bot!
3. See what your bot can do right now
Run your VNC viewer, and type address and port localhost:5900
. The password is secret
.
4. Stop your instapy bot
Use your terminal again, type in the same window:
docker-compose down
Your bot is stopped!
5. Further steps
Those are just basic steps to run instapy bot on your PC with docker. There are other docker-compose settings file in the root of project.
Development environment to run, test and debug by SSH
Use it to help us with development and test instapy! docker-dev.yml
file.
docker-compose -f docker-dev.yml up -d
After striking this command, you can access your bot by VNC on the adress localhost:5901
, the password is secret
.
But there is more! There is a fully accessible bash console with all code mounted at the path /code
. When you hack some files they are dynamically updated inside your container.
To access yor container console to run bot type localhost:22
in your favorite ssh client. The User is root
and the password is root
also.
Run in production without opened VNC port
Suitable to run in a remote server. Attention! You can not view what happened through VNC on this configuration docker-prod.yml
file.
docker-compose -f docker-prod.yml up -d
Running all-in-one with Docker (obsolete)
1. Build the Image
First you need to build the image by running this in the Terminal:
docker build -t instapy ./docker_conf/all_in_one
Make sure to use the nogui
feature:
#you can use the nogui parameter to use a virtual display
session = InstaPy(username='test', password='test', nogui=True)
2. Run in a Container
After the build succeeds, you can simply run the container with:
docker run --name=instapy -e INSTA_USER=<your-user> -e INSTA_PW=<your-pw> -d --rm instapy