At a glance
Status, checked 2026-09-18: every app starts at Standard Access, which covers accounts you own or manage plus people with a role on the app, with no App Review; serving accounts you do not own or manage takes Advanced Access, App Review and Business Verification (Meta: Instagram Platform App Review, checked 2026-09-18). The ElectricBlaze widget connects accounts through ElectricBlaze's own Meta app, so the site owner creates none.
- Use it when
- you are choosing how to get Instagram posts onto one or many websites and need to know whether a Meta review blocks the plan.
- Do not use it when
- the app publishes posts, moderates comments or sends messages. Those features use other permissions, and this page covers reading a feed only.
- What the human does
- with Standard Access the account owner only logs in through your app. With Advanced Access someone at your company completes Business Verification and submits App Review in the Meta App Dashboard.
- Next step
- find your case in the first table. If it says Standard Access, go on to access tokens.
Your case in one table
What decides the access level is whose Instagram account the token belongs to, and how that person relates to the app.
| Scenario | Whose accounts | Access level | App Review | Business Verification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your own website | Your own Business or Creator account | Standard Access | Not needed | Listed only for Advanced Access |
| Client sites you build and run | Accounts you manage, or whose owners hold a role on your app | Standard Access | Not needed | Listed only for Advanced Access |
| One Meta app per client | The client's own account, in an app the client owns | Standard Access in each app | Not needed | Listed only for Advanced Access |
| Public SaaS, plugin or theme | Accounts of people you have never met | Advanced Access | Required | Required |
| Widget from a feed provider | Connected through the provider's app | Handled by the provider | Not filed by you | Not filed by you |
Sources: Meta: Instagram Platform App Review, checked 2026-09-18; Meta: Instagram Platform overview, checked 2026-09-18.
The last row is where ElectricBlaze and similar embed services sit; it is described at the end of this page.
Standard Access: the default level
Every app starts at Standard Access. The app can then call the API for Instagram accounts you own or manage and for people who hold a role on the app, and no App Review is involved (Meta: Instagram Platform App Review, checked 2026-09-18).
For a feed, the permission to request is instagram_business_basic, which reads the profile and its media. instagram_basic is its counterpart in the Instagram API with Facebook Login, a different product (Meta: Instagram API with Instagram Login, checked 2026-09-18). The older scope value business_basic was deprecated on 2025-01-27 (Meta: Instagram API with Instagram Login, checked 2026-09-18).
The account must be professional: Business or Creator. Personal accounts are not supported (Meta: Instagram Platform overview, checked 2026-09-18), and the Basic Display API was shut down on 2024-12-04 (Meta developer blog, 2024-09-04, checked 2026-09-18).
A Standard Access token for your own account, GET /v25.0/me/media (example values)
{
"data": [
{
"id": "17900000000000001",
"media_type": "IMAGE",
"media_url": "https://instagram-cdn.example/v/photo-1.jpg?oe=6A1B2C3D",
"permalink": "https://www.instagram.com/p/EXAMPLE1/",
"timestamp": "2026-09-15T14:02:11+0000"
}
],
"paging": {
"cursors": { "before": "EXAMPLE_BEFORE", "after": "EXAMPLE_AFTER" },
"next": "https://graph.instagram.com/v25.0/17841400000000000/media?after=EXAMPLE_AFTER"
}
}If this comes back for your own account, the access level is not what stands between you and the feed. Errors that remain are covered on feed not working.
Development mode and the Instagram Tester role
Chatwoot's integration guide reports that while an app is in Development mode, the Instagram account usually needs the Instagram Tester role; the owner accepts it in Instagram under Settings, Apps and websites, Tester invites, and without it calls fail with "Insufficient developer role" (Chatwoot docs on Instagram Business Login, checked 2026-09-18).
That comes from a secondary source, not from Meta, so read it as the first thing to rule out rather than as a rule. For a site that shows its own feed, the working order is: give the account the role, accept the invite, log in, call /me/media.
A role is also how Standard Access reaches an account you do not own. People with a role on the app are one of the two groups it covers, so a client who accepts a role can be served without review.
What else changes when an app moves from Development to Live mode is outside the facts verified for this page. Check the App Dashboard before launch and test with the production account.
Advanced Access: App Review plus Business Verification
Advanced Access is for apps that serve Instagram accounts you neither own nor manage. Meta requires two things for it: App Review and Business Verification (Meta: Instagram Platform App Review, checked 2026-09-18). Typical products on this side of the line:
- A SaaS dashboard where customers connect their own Instagram accounts.
- A WordPress plugin, Shopify app or theme that ships one Meta app to every install.
- A site builder that offers an Instagram block to all of its users.
Until approval, the same app keeps working under Standard Access for your own accounts and for people with a role. That is enough to build the feature, record a demo and test it end to end.
Leave time for both steps before a public launch, because the product cannot serve strangers' accounts until they are done. Each connected account still has its own token with a 60-day life (Meta: access_token reference, checked 2026-09-18), so a SaaS product also needs a refresh job per account.
Agencies: three ways to handle client feeds
- One Meta app per client, owned by the client. Standard Access, no review. Each client needs a Meta developer account and a refresh job; forty clients means forty tokens running on separate 60-day clocks.
- One agency app, clients with a role. Standard Access covers people with a role on the app, so no review is needed as long as every account owner accepts one. Each account still has a token of its own to refresh.
- An embedded widget. The provider's app holds the connection; you run no Meta app and store no token.
If it is unclear whether a client account counts as one you manage, a role on the app settles the question.
Where ElectricBlaze fits
The ElectricBlaze Instagram widget connects the account through ElectricBlaze's own Meta app. The site owner signs in at a.electricblaze.com, connects Instagram and pastes the snippet. They create no Meta app, so there is no access level to choose and no review to file.
<div class="electricblaze-id-WIDGET_ID"></div>
<script src="https://s.electricblaze.com/widget.js" defer></script>What it does not do, as of 2026-09-18. Its feed carries no media_product_type and no carousel children, so reels appear as plain videos and carousels as their cover image. There is no supported JSON API for server code yet; one is planned for 0.2.
If a product needs those fields, or publishing and comments, build your own app and pick the access level from the table above.