Users can tap into their Facebook account from Photo Finale sites or use their Facebook account as their photo login.
To use photos stored on Facebook in cards, prints, books, etc., the user must be logged into an account (ie, be a member) in order to see these buttons and connect with his or her account.
If the user does not have "My photos" selected, then apps (such as Photo Finale) would not be able to show them when accessed through a friend's account even though that friend may be able to see the photos on Facebook.com itself.
In January 2018, Instagram announced plans to deprecate (or retire) their existing API, cutting off 3rd-party access to a user's basic profile information and photos by early 2020. While they did unveil a new API alongside this announcement, the new one is targeted at corporate brand management only and does not replace the functionality that platforms like ours tap into to allow a customer to access and print their own uploaded photos. The omission of a new API for this workflow made it clear that Instagram was not planning to support our type of workflow going forward.
Later in 2018, in the wake of the well-publicized, data-privacy incidents, Facebook and Instagram made major changes to their app review process to lock it down further.
Although they have not officially announced any change to the "early 2020" date they previously published, our experience over the past six months has made clear that they are no longer actively reviewing or accepting new apps (what they call the connections we make from your PF site to their site) or updates to existing ones. Reviews that we have requested have been sitting in queues for months and all communication attempts have gone unanswered.
Some Photo Finale sites continue to have working Instagram connections and we will leave these in place until they no longer function. For sites with Instagram connections that are currently broken, unfortunately nothing can be done so we will be disabling the integration entirely and will no longer submit connection requests for new sites.