Hi all, I've not been here for ages. I am looking to start an Instagram clone for a particular niche community. Can I do it with buzztouch plugins? I'd also be looking at self hosting for this if it's possible, which I've never done before. So, I'm after advice!

Both yes and no. YES, you can do it with the regular plugins from the plugins market, for menus, email, reading custom URLs and so on. All BT projects depend on these "classical" plugins for infrastructure. NO, you cannot do it using only the already existing plugins. There is an Instagram plugin called Instafeed and it exists only in the version for iOS, there is no such plugin for Android. It is highly likely you will need one or more custom created plugins suited to your particular goals exclusively. Practical steps for you: create a wire frame model of your app, you know, the first screen is a menu, the commands in that menu lead to this, this, and this screens, where the following happens... and so on. Then dive into the plugins market and see which screens in your app can conform to the existing plugins, and then isolate only the screens that need custom code. Assign a price to each of the custom created plugins / screens, run it through an Excel table and see whether you really want to do that, or not. Expenses versus gains, stuff like that. That is all BEFORE you contact anyone to create custom code for you. You may want to run through the How To's section of this site. In particular, have a look at this: https://www.buzztouch.com/files/howtos/sblhs_proposal_Redacted.pdf It will give you a balanced view of app development cycle. Self hosting is a must if you will have custom made code in your app. Also be ready to handle the access to your BT server to the developer, so they can upload the code to your server. When the dust settles, you have your own app, running on your own server, with all the code on it. Self hosted buys you independence, so it is a must for serious apps development with BT. Good luck with your idea!

I believe that Instagram does not allow one to post photos through their API. One must use the official Instagram app to post photos. The app does have an API by which your BT app can send a photo to the official Instagram app. The API is based on the URL Scheme. Dusko can help you make progress. Hire him! :-) -- Niraj

Thanks. I'm not looking to post to Instagram, but provide an alternative.

It's easy to create a instagram clone with buzztouch. You can use some existing plugins. Just get creative with it by adding custom code