ℹ️As instagrams web-version now also support sending direct messages, this app no longer serves a purpose for me. I'll not be maintaining it any longer.
This is a web app which allows one to send and receive instagram direct messages. You can check it out here: instadm.app
Instagram does not provide a public API to send and receive direct messages. I'm using instagram-api-client to get around this limitation. Following the EULA of instagram-api-client, I don't intend to make this app accesible for everyone to use. I'm limiting the app to only allow logging in with my personal account.
I like to draft and send messages in my browser. I have always been a big fan of whatsapp's web client. I couldn't find anything similar for Instagram, so I decided to build it myself. I also wanted to play around with some new technologies (Vue.js and Nuxt.js) and concepts (serverless).
This is a monorepo which I deploy whith zeit's amazing Now product.
The backend is a serverless Node API written with express. I'm using passport for authentication and instagram-api-client to access instagram's API.
The frontend is a Vue.js app, which is server-side-rendered with Nuxt.js.
As this app can only be used by myself, I will maintain and add features whenever I feel like it (see trello board). Realistically I will use this project mostly to play around with Vue.js and Nuxt.js.
In order to develop this app you're going to need the Now CLI.
Then, you can just run now dev and play around on http://localhost:3000/