Post to Instagram

Reelspan publishes to Instagram professional accounts through Meta's Graph API. You send the video or photos once; Reelspan creates the Instagram media, waits for Instagram to process it, publishes it and returns the permalink.

What you can post

Instagram has no text-only posts and no documents. Reelspan handles for you:

• JPEG only. Instagram takes JPEG photos. PNG, WebP, HEIC and JPEGs over 8 MB are converted to a JPEG under 8 MB first; the result says so in warnings.
• Mixed carousels. Videos sent in photos[] become video items of the carousel. Each video item is processed before the carousel is made.
• Processing. Instagram fetches the media from a short-lived signed link and processes it. Reelspan waits for it (up to 15 minutes), publishes it, then reads back the post's permalink.

Connect the account

Instagram connects through Facebook Login, so the account needs to be set up the way Meta's API requires:

1. The Instagram account is a professional account (Business or Creator). Switch in the Instagram app under Settings → Account type and tools.
2. It is linked to a Facebook Page you manage.
3. In Reelspan, go to Accounts → Instagram, sign in with the Facebook account that manages that Page, and share the Page when Facebook asks.

Reelspan connects the Instagram account linked to the first shared Page that has one. If you manage several, share only the Page whose Instagram account you want on this profile. The same Facebook sign-in can connect Facebook Pages too; each is its own connection.

Example

A Reel with a co-author and a custom cover:

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/video \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -F "user=my-brand" \
  -F "platform[]=instagram" \
  -F "instagram_title=Behind the scenes of our spring shoot 🌸" \
  -F "collaborators=@partnerstudio" \
  -F "share_to_feed=true" \
  -F "cover_url=https://example.com/cover.jpg" \
  -F "[email protected]"

import { Reelspan } from 'reelspan';
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const reelspan = new Reelspan();
const post = await reelspan.posts.video({
  user: 'my-brand',
  platforms: ['instagram'],
  video: { data: await readFile('launch.mp4'), name: 'launch.mp4', type: 'video/mp4' },
  extra: {
    instagram_title: 'Behind the scenes of our spring shoot 🌸',
    collaborators: '@partnerstudio',
    share_to_feed: true,
    cover_url: 'https://example.com/cover.jpg',
  },
});

from reelspan import Reelspan

reelspan = Reelspan()
post = reelspan.posts.video(
    "my-brand", ["instagram"], "launch.mp4",
    extra={
        "instagram_title": "Behind the scenes of our spring shoot 🌸",
        "collaborators": "@partnerstudio",
        "share_to_feed": True,
        "cover_url": "https://example.com/cover.jpg",
    },
)

A carousel is the same request on POST /v1/posts/photos with several photos[], and alt_text[] (or instagram_alt_text[]) in the same order.

Fields

Limits

• Caption: 2,200 characters. Instagram also allows at most 30 hashtags and 20 mentions.
• Carousel: up to 10 items; with more, the first 10 are used and the result says so.
• Photos: JPEG up to 8 MB (other photos are converted). Instagram takes feed photos from 4:5 to 1.91:1.
• Video size: your plan's upload limit (see Plans and limits).
• Shapes: 9:16 for Reels and Stories, 4:5 or 1:1 for feed posts.

Good to know

• Stories carry no caption, and a photo Story uses the first photo only.
• Collaborators, covers, location, audio name and trial Reels apply to Reels; they are ignored on Stories and photo posts.
• Result extras: container_id (Instagram's media container) and, for videos, media_type.
• First comment: Reelspan posts it under the new post. If Meta refuses it (for example a missing comment permission on the connection), the post stays up and the result carries first_comment: "failed" and a warning.
• Analytics: account followers, following and post count; per post, likes and comments.

Errors