A Real-Time API for Next-Generation Apps

instagr.am

51 points·ssclafani··6 comments

(One hour and no comments yet. Intimidating.)

This seems like a great idea with benefits for both sides. I haven't messed with too many APIs yet but are they the first to use POST requests this way?

I'll definitely try and hack something later tonight as I don't own an iPhone and would like to keep up with friends' instragr.am updates.

It's really just webhooks, no? I know Github offers this for post commit hooks.

I love the idea of webhooks and think they're really underutilized. But it's been around.

I dig the use of PubSubHubbub. It's very similar to some ideas I've been kicking around (I have an experimental/incomplete Node.js PSHB implementation). Take out all the stuff about hub discovery, feed content notifications, and xml, and you're left with a simple protocol for users to subscribe to updates on a given topic.

This doesn't seem all that different than Twilio sending you POST requests when you get a call or SMS. Very cool application of the concept though - I like it!

This sounds like one more step to making push something that's expected on the web. BlackBerry did it to email when they created the "interactive pager", but it took a few years before people realized what was happening.

It's great to see hot companies like Instagram jumping onto a coming wave like this to popularize it sooner.

Excellent. Hardware and software independence.

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