OG App That Turned Instagram Back to Older Version is ‘Pulled By Meta’
Meta has cracked down on The OG App with the Instagram imitator being pulled from the iOS store just one day after its launch.
The OG App only officially launched this week and it claimed to fix everything users hate about Instagram and return the app back to the advertising-free and suggestion-free feed that photographers once loved.
The OG app reportedly amassed almost 10,000 downloads within a few days. However, Meta has confirmed it has taken “enforcement actions” against the platform and Apple has now removed the app from the iOS store for violating its rules
“This app violates our policies and we’re taking all appropriate enforcement actions,” a Meta spokesperson tells TechCrunch
The Meta spokesperson reportedly declined to elaborate on what those actions were, or if the company had been in contact with Apple, but pointed to a blog post outlining Meta’s policies barring clone sites.
On Twitter, the developers of The OG App, Ansh Nanda and Hardik Patil, claimed that their entire team had been permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram as a result of their links to the platform.
Meta just banned my, and my team's, personal Facebook accounts for creating @TheOGapp_ https://t.co/3romi5kcOY
— ansh nanda 🔗 (@anshnanda_) September 28, 2022
In response to the app’s removal from the iOS Store, the start-up behind The OG App, Un1feed accused Apple of “colluding” with Facebook.
“Everyone knows Instagram sucks. We made it better and got a lot of love from users. But Facebook hates its own users so much, it’s willing to crush an alternative that gives them a clean, ad-free Instagram. Apple is colluding with Facebook to bully two teenagers who made Instagram better,” the startup tells TechCrunch. “We have asked Apple for a comment, and we’ll update the story if we hear back.”
The OG App still remains on the Google Play Store and the app’s founders say that Android is “the clear choice for users who want privacy, freedom, and optionality.”
What Is The OG App?
Like many Instagram users, Nanda and Patil, became so frustrated with the Meta-owned app that they decided to make The OG App which gives users an ad-free, Reel-free and suggestion-free Instagram feed.
With The OG App, Nanda and Patil are not attempting to create a new social media platform. Instead, the app simply realigns Instagram’s feed to the user’s choices.
Users can log into their Instagram account through The OG App and it shows their home feed immediately. However, the app automatically removes any ads and suggested posts on its filtered version of a user’s Instagram feed.
The OG App essentially replicates Instagram in its current iteration but without the continuous barrage of algorithmically suggested content. Instead, the app allows users to customize their Instagram feed to what they want it to look like.
Additional features on The OG App enable users to switch off Instagram’s TikTok clone, Reels completely. Users have the option to only watch short-form videos shared by the accounts they follow. Users can also curate different Instagram feeds for their various needs on The OG app, in a similar fashion to Twitter Lists.
Developer Alessandro Paluzzi had previously warned that as The OG App was using Instagram’s API, it could face some serious questions from Meta in the coming months and the app “won’t last long on the app stores.”
