Post UIImage to Instagram using Swift similar to SLComposeViewController

Updated for Swift 3

import UIKit
import Foundation

class InstagramManager: NSObject, UIDocumentInteractionControllerDelegate {

    private let kInstagramURL = "instagram://app"
    private let kUTI = "com.instagram.exclusivegram"
    private let kfileNameExtension = "instagram.igo"
    private let kAlertViewTitle = "Error"
    private let kAlertViewMessage = "Please install the Instagram application"

    var documentInteractionController = UIDocumentInteractionController()

    // singleton manager
    class var sharedManager: InstagramManager {
        struct Singleton {
            static let instance = InstagramManager()
        }
        return Singleton.instance
    }

    func postImageToInstagramWithCaption(imageInstagram: UIImage, instagramCaption: String, view: UIView) {
        // called to post image with caption to the instagram application

        let instagramURL = NSURL(string: kInstagramURL)

        if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(instagramURL! as URL) {

            let jpgPath = (NSTemporaryDirectory() as NSString).appendingPathComponent(kfileNameExtension)

            do {
                try UIImageJPEGRepresentation(imageInstagram, 1.0)?.write(to: URL(fileURLWithPath: jpgPath), options: .atomic)

            } catch {

                print(error)
            }

            let rect = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 612, height: 612)
            let fileURL = NSURL.fileURL(withPath: jpgPath)
            documentInteractionController.url = fileURL
            documentInteractionController.delegate = self
            documentInteractionController.uti = kUTI

            // adding caption for the image
            documentInteractionController.annotation = ["InstagramCaption": instagramCaption]
            documentInteractionController.presentOpenInMenu(from: rect, in: view, animated: true)
        } else {

            /// display some message about how it didn't work
            /// Like: UIAlertController(title: kAlertViewTitle, message: kAlertViewMessage, preferredStyle: .alert)
        }
    }
}

and then in the ViewController you want to call it in...

InstagramManager.sharedManager.postImageToInstagramWithCaption(imageInstagram: <YOUR IMAGE>, instagramCaption: shareText, view: self.view)

This opens the 'open-in' function if Instagram is installed


I looked here and found a solution:

I created an NSObject:

import UIKit
import Foundation

class InstagramManager: NSObject, UIDocumentInteractionControllerDelegate {

    private let kInstagramURL = "instagram://app"
    private let kUTI = "com.instagram.exclusivegram"
    private let kfileNameExtension = "instagram.igo"
    private let kAlertViewTitle = "Error"
    private let kAlertViewMessage = "Please install the Instagram application"

    var documentInteractionController = UIDocumentInteractionController()

    // singleton manager
    class var sharedManager: InstagramManager {
        struct Singleton {
            static let instance = InstagramManager()
        }
        return Singleton.instance
    }

    func postImageToInstagramWithCaption(imageInstagram: UIImage, instagramCaption: String, view: UIView) {
        // called to post image with caption to the instagram application

        let instagramURL = NSURL(string: kInstagramURL)
        if UIApplication.sharedApplication().canOpenURL(instagramURL!) {
            let jpgPath = (NSTemporaryDirectory() as NSString).stringByAppendingPathComponent(kfileNameExtension)
            UIImageJPEGRepresentation(imageInstagram, 1.0)!.writeToFile(jpgPath, atomically: true)
            let rect = CGRectMake(0,0,612,612)
            let fileURL = NSURL.fileURLWithPath(jpgPath)
            documentInteractionController.URL = fileURL
            documentInteractionController.delegate = self
            documentInteractionController.UTI = kUTI

            // adding caption for the image
            documentInteractionController.annotation = ["InstagramCaption": instagramCaption]
            documentInteractionController.presentOpenInMenuFromRect(rect, inView: view, animated: true)
        } else {

            // alert displayed when the instagram application is not available in the device
            UIAlertView(title: kAlertViewTitle, message: kAlertViewMessage, delegate:nil, cancelButtonTitle:"Ok").show()
        }
    }

}

Then in my @IBAction I used:

let image = self.photoImageView.image
InstagramManager.sharedManager.postImageToInstagramWithCaption(image!, instagramCaption: "\(self.description)", view: self.view)

This opens bring a menu up with the 'open-in' style and the user can open the app in Instagram (if installed).


Here is a reusable class with swift 4+. Working in Xcode 10.1.

  1. Make swift empty file.
  2. copy and paste the below code into the file.

    import UIKit
    import Foundation
    
    class InstagramHelper: NSObject, UIDocumentInteractionControllerDelegate {
    
        private let kInstagramURL = "instagram://den3079"
        private let kUTI = "com.instagram.exclusivegram"
        private let kfileNameExtension = "instagram.igo"
        private let kAlertViewTitle = "Error"
        private let kAlertViewMessage = "Please install the Instagram application"
    
        var documentInteractionController = UIDocumentInteractionController()
    
        // singleton manager
        class var sharedManager: InstagramHelper {
            struct Singleton {
                static let instance = InstagramHelper()
            }
            return Singleton.instance
        }
    
    
        func postImageToInstagramWithCaption(imageInstagram: UIImage, instagramCaption: String, controller: UIViewController) {
            // called to post image with caption to the instagram application
    
            let instagramURL = URL(string: kInstagramURL)
    
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
    
                if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(instagramURL!) {
    
                    let jpgPath = (NSTemporaryDirectory() as NSString).appendingPathComponent(self.kfileNameExtension)
                    if let jpegData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(imageInstagram, 1.0) {
                        do {
                            try jpegData.write(to: URL(fileURLWithPath: jpgPath), options: .atomicWrite)
    
                        } catch {
                            print("write image failed")
                        }
                    }else {
                        let jpegData = UIImagePNGRepresentation(imageInstagram)
                        do {
                            try jpegData?.write(to: URL(fileURLWithPath: jpgPath), options: .atomicWrite)
    
                        } catch {
                            print("write image failed")
                        }
                    }
                    let fileURL = NSURL.fileURL(withPath: jpgPath)
                    self.documentInteractionController.url = fileURL
                    self.documentInteractionController.delegate = self
                    self.documentInteractionController.uti = self.kUTI
    
                    // adding caption for the image
                    self.documentInteractionController.annotation = ["InstagramCaption": instagramCaption]
                    self.documentInteractionController.presentOpenInMenu(from: controller.view.frame, in: controller.view, animated: true)
    
                } else {
    
                    // alert displayed when the instagram application is not available in the device
                    self.showAlert("", message: self.kAlertViewMessage, controller: controller)
                }
            }
        }
     func showAlert(_ title: String, message: String, controller : UIViewController){
    
        let alert = UIAlertController(title: title, message: message, preferredStyle: UIAlertControllerStyle.alert)
        let okAction = UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: UIAlertActionStyle.default, handler: { action -> Void in
            //Just dismiss the action sheet
            let selector: Selector = NSSelectorFromString("alertOkButtonHandler")
            if controller.responds(to: selector){
                _ = controller.perform(selector)
            }
        })
        alert.addAction(okAction)
        controller.present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
    }}
    

And use of this function in ViewController class.

InstagramHelper.sharedManager.postImageToInstagramWithCaption(imageInstagram: img!, instagramCaption: "www.google.com", controller: self)