Last month, a company known as Un1feed came out with an app called The OG App which claimed to give Instagram users the choice of having their own customizable layout.
The app also promised to return users to the Instagram without ads or suggestions but unfortunately, this raised a lot of issues and threatened the privacy and security of some users. In light of this, Meta, the parent company of Instagram, released a statement saying that it would be “taking all appropriate enforcement actions.” There is no clear insight as to what steps were taken by the tech giant however, Apple has taken off the OG app from their store citing that its access to Instagram users and service was unauthorized. They also stated that the app breached their rules by showcasing content from third party apps.
After a week off the AppStore, Google has also followed suit by removing the OG app from their platform as well, forcing Un1feed out of business. The cofounders took to Twitter to announce that they were no longer able to “serve their users through the mobile app”. They also claimed that their goal with the OG app was to “give users a glimpse of this within the current paradigm” and that in the short period of the app’s life, it garnered over 25,000 downloads.
Following this, Meta has reviewed its security and limited the amount of content that is exported from its family on apps. However, the OG app’s popularity in such a short time is perhaps indicative of their users’ interests in a return to the familiar layout.
