I’ve been a lurker here for some time and have been reading this thread religiously to get updates on the June Issue.
I run a company and created my own app - totally proprietary (please don’t ask for the name or codebase as I will not share). I created and use the codebase on my own website where users sign up and pay to access monthly. Similar to Jarvee. Anyway, I have some insights to share that can potentially help everyone and maybe someone who is writing a solution themselves.
Some background - I understand the Instagram App, as well as iOS dev, Servers, Android Dev and the Entire Technologies Back to Front. I can reverse engineer anything and am usually very quick to react to any changes.
Up until June - for 3 years - my bots were immune to any Instagram Changes. I was even running them on Data Center Proxies (nothing special) and as you well know. Most proxies have been flagged lately.
Usually changing proxies worked but this time it didn’t…
Instagram and Facebok have compiled a list of data-center proxies and blacklisted their ASNs (I have internal documentation from Instagram confirming this which I can share - and it’s actually a great read on their attempts to tackle Bot Automation)
So I rested the accounts for 1/2 weeks then switched to Residential / Mobile
It did not work (just like it won’t work for you … not for very long anyway) and here is why :
I believe Instagram has implemented some sort of validation checking into their newer apps - so right now any older User Agents (particularly those being used by bots like Jarvee) have been effected. They have also started to implement harsher limits to apps that don’t utilize or support TLS 1.3 which they rolled out in August last year 2018 with Fizz.
The newer apps are actually using stricter forms of security so they are much more complex to reverse-engineer. But I am very close to a solution. It’s a nightmare to get it done but I will update you guys - if anyone is interested.
For now I have created a rudimentary solution that uses a Virtual Device (genymotion) and automates tasks and I am able to like / follow even when Jarvee and my other tools are refusing to budge. Think about it - how often have you actually got a block on likes on your phone ? even after liking 10-20 times I find it hard to get a block. But that’s not the case in Jarvee and other bots.
I am in the process of trying to make it scalable with the ability to switch multiple accounts and proxies - but the real solution will come about once I reverse engineer the SSL pinning / inspect packets on the Apps.
Let me tell you something though guys - gone are the days of doing all of this cheaply. The new solutions will require more computational overhead / more expensive proxies to overcome and this is what Instagram / Facebook is counting on.
Think about it…
Only the ones who adapt will survive.
I’m off to bed now but feel free to discuss and I will respond once awake.