Instagram has faced a barrage of criticism recently for the growing number of ads, “suggested” posts, Reels, and other content being inserted into user feeds. A new app, cleverly dubbed the “OG App,” aims to make Instagram useable again by giving you an ad-free feed that’s also rid of any suggested posts.
How to get an ad-free Instagram feed
As reported by TechCrunch, OG App implements Instagram’s official API to let users sign into their accounts and view posts from people they follow. Once you sign in, you’ll see your Home feed right as the main interface of the app.
OG App also supports creating “alternative feeds,” a feature that is similar to Twitter Lists. You can create custom feeds for different topics and groups of accounts. For example, you can create an alternative feed focused on something like music, and add your favorite music-focused Instagram accounts.
Once you create these alternative feeds, you can easily swipe between them, and each of them is added to the bottom navigation bar.
The app was created by Ansh Nanda and Hardik Patil, who say that their goal is to create an Instagram experience that gives users more control over their feeds. Speaking to TechCrunch, the two explained:
One of the biggest risks with OG App, of course, is Instagram cracking down on its API to block apps like this. In the interview, Nanda and Patil said they aren’t worried about “any changes to the Instagram API at the moment” and are focused on “building a solid product for the users.”
We saw our friends and family getting affected by social media, and even deleting apps because they didn’t have enough options to modify what they see. We wanted to put users, and not the advertisers first with this app. We started with Instagram because we thought the app has the most toxic relationship with its users.
Going forward, Nanda and Patil have big plans for the OG App. The two ar working on new features like custom feeds with private accounts, sharing custom feeds with friends, and offline downloading from stories. They are also planning filters for feeds and “sharing collections as feeds and making collaborative feeds.”
You can download the OG App from the App Store for free. It supports signing in with Apple, then authenticating with your Instagram account.
The servers appear to be getting slammed at the moment, so if you’re unable to sign in, you might have to wait until the launch hype wears off. We’re hoping these are just some early growing pains, because the app itself is fantastic once you get in.
Privacy
As far as privacy is concerned, there are a few things worth noting here. First off, in the App Store you’ll see the data that this app “links” to you thanks to Apple’s Privacy Labels feature. The key thing here is that the data listed here is due to the Instagram integration into the app. It’s the data that Instagram collects from all users; not data that the OG App itself is collecting.
Additionally, when you sign into your Instagram account via the OG App, you aren’t handing over your login credentials to the OG App itself. When you input your username and password, you’re using the official API provided by Instagram. Instagram has a variety of login protection features for account security.
This means that when you log in via the OG App, you might receive a message from Instagram about an “unknown device or login attempt.” This is the same alert you’d get if you logged in on a new iPhone directly inside the Instagram app.
You can view the OG App’s full privacy policy on the company’s website right here.
