Trick to Get Instagram Live Video Replay

February 18, 2018

When I use ChromeIGStory, I found it can download the live video replay that is shared to user stories. I know that the main endpoint of Instagram private API which ChromeIGStory uses is the following reels_tray feed:

https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/feed/reels_tray/

So I think maybe there is another endpoint that can get information of live video replay, I looked at the source code and found there is a LIVE_API and it seems to be the answer I need, so I tried but failed.

After several days, I looked at the source code of ChromeIGStory more closely, but still cannot found any endpoint which returns information of live video replay. Today I made some Google searches, and found the following thread:

• get last shared live video · Issue #1370 · mgp25/Instagram-API · GitHub

In the thread, I found the information is returned in the reels_tray feed, which I already know how to access. But I cannot see any information of live video replay in the returned JSON. So I tried again to see what other developers send HTTP request, and I tried to set cache-control and x-ig-capabilities in the HTTP request header, but it still did not work.

Then I searched agagin, and found maybe I need to add ig_sig_key, but it is too difficult to get the ig_sig_key, so I did not try.

Finally, I made more Google searches with the keyword post live item instagram github and found the replay section in instagram_private_api_extensions, and I found the User-Agent used in the Python code is different from mine. My User-Agent is

Instagram 10.3.2 (iPhone7,2; iPhone OS 9_3_3; en_US; en-US; scale=2.00; 750x1334) AppleWebKit/420+

But they use:

Instagram 10.26.0 (iPhone8,1; iOS 10_2; en_US; en-US; scale=2.00; gamut=normal; 750x1334) AppleWebKit/420+

I changed my User-Agent in my Go code and BINGO! It works! Now I see a new field called post-live in the returned JSON in reels_tray feed.

It took me a lot of time to know the solution, so I write this post to take note of my new finding!

References:

[1]tricks to get post live · siongui/instago@3cee0a0 · GitHub