What is Wrapped for Instagram and is it legit?
UnsplashA new third-party app called Instagram Wrap has taken social media by storm recently as it claims to create a yearly wrap-up for your habits on Instagram – but is it legit?
After Spotify Wrapped began showcasing users’ unique listening habits in 2016, circulating such results quickly became an annual tradition — and in recent years, platforms from BeReal to Apple Music to Grubhub have hopped on the bandwagon.
But recap campaigns are usually pushed by the platforms themselves, not through third-party apps (although this is the case for Wrapped for TikTok).
As people began plastering their “Instagram Wrapped” results across social media, people also began to worry about the possibility that anyone could now be exposed for secretly lurking on someone’s profile.
In the beginning of November, warnings about potential data privacy concerns popped up on social media as users questioned Instagram Wrapped’s legitimacy.
But what exactly is Instagram Wrapped, and is it legit? Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Instagram Wrap?
An app that went viral on the Apple App Store in November 2023 called Instagram Wrap claims to summarise your activity on the app and show it to you in a “wrapped” feature.
Instagram Wrapped was available for iOS devices only, from the Apple App Store, but has since been removed by Apple after Meta’s request.
A spokesperson for Meta told NBC News that the Wrapped app “violates our policies and we’ve asked Apple to remove it from the App Store.” The spokesperson did not cite which violation and declined to comment further.
While there is an app called Wrapped on Android’s Google Play, whose app store page uses the same screenshots, once downloaded, you’ll find it bears no relation to the iPhone version.
The app required users to log in with their Instagram login to see their stats. These stats include the user’s most popular stories, who you talked to the most, and a chart of your “top friends”.
Is Instagram Wrapped legit?
Instagram Wrapped is not legit in the sense it is not made by the Meta team. It also appears not to do what the app claims.
Users on Reddit claim it simply lists your friends in the order they appear in your follower count. Users on X have also claimed the stats Wrapped spits out change each time you try to access the app.
Providing fake data is consistent with the idea that Wrapped doesn’t have access to the inner workings of your Instagram account, which third-party apps do not get just by linking them to your Meta login.
Wrapped’s App Store page said the app does not collect any data from the app. However, when you open the app users are asked to link Wrapped to their Instagram account, but it is unclear whether this is a legitimate linked login interface or just a text box that could be used to harvest your login data.
