insomniac 3.1.0

Insomniac: Instagram bot for automated Instagram interaction using Android device via ADB

Insomniac

Liking and following automatically on your Android phone/tablet. No root required: it works on UI Automator, which is an official Android UI testing framework.

Table of contents

• Why you should automate Instagram activity (liking, following, etc.)?
• How to install
  • How to install on Raspberry Pi OS
• Get started
  • Usage example
  • Full list of command line arguments
  • FAQ
• Extra features
• Source code
• Filtering
• Whitelist and Blacklist
• Analytics
• Features in progress
• Why Insomniac?
• Community

Why you should automate Instagram activity (liking, following, etc.)?

💸 If you want just to increase your followers count or get more likes, there's a bunch of companies that will give you that immediately for a few $$$. But most likely your audience will be bots and mass-followers.

🌱 If you want to get engaged followers, that will be interested in your content and probably will pay you for your services, then automation is the right way.

🎯 This Instagram bot provides you methods to target on the audience that is most likely interested in you. These methods are:

1. Interact with followers of bloggers with similar content
2. Interact with likers of hashtags that you use
3. Filter accounts to avoid bots and mass-followers

📈 Using these methods altogether gives the best result.

How to install

1. Run python3 -m pip install insomniac in Terminal / Command Prompt
   _{^{Provided python and pip are installed already. Learn how to check it.}}
2. Save start.py file which launches the script
3. Download and unzip Android platform tools, move them to a folder where you won't delete them accidentally, e.g.

mkdir -p ~/Library/Android/sdk
mv <path-to-downloads>/platform-tools/ ~/Library/Android/sdk

3. Add platform-tools path to the PATH environment variable. If you do it correctly, Terminal / Command Prompt command adb devices will print List of devices attached

How to install on Raspberry Pi OS

1. Update apt-get: sudo apt-get update
2. Install ADB and Fastboot: sudo apt-get install -y android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot
3. Install insomniac: python3 -m pip install insomniac
4. Save start.py file

Get started

1. Connect Android device to your computer with a USB cable
2. Enable Developer options on the device

On Android 4.1 and lower, the Developer options screen is available by default. On Android 4.2 and higher, you must enable this screen. To enable developer options, tap the Build Number option 7 times. You can find this option in one of the following locations, depending on your Android version:

Android 9 (API level 28) and higher: Settings > About Phone > Build Number

Android 8.0.0 (API level 26) and Android 8.1.0 (API level 26): Settings > System > About Phone > Build Number

Android 7.1 (API level 25) and lower: Settings > About Phone > Build Number

3. Switch on USB debugging (and also Install apps via USB and Allow ADB debugging in charge only mode if there are such options) on the Developer options screen.
4. Device will ask you to allow computer connection. Press "Connect"
5. Type adb devices in terminal. It will display attached devices. There should be exactly one device. Then run the script (it works on Python 3):
6. Open Terminal / Command Prompt in the folder with downloaded start.py (or type cd <path-to-start.py>) and run

python3 start.py --interact @natgeo

Make sure that the screen is turned on and device is unblocked. You don't have to open Instagram app, script opens it and closes when it's finished. Just make sure that Instagram app is installed. If everything's fine, script will open @natgeo's followers and like their posts.

Usage example

Let's say you have a travel blog. Then you may want to use such setup:

python3 start.py --interact @natgeo amazingtrips beautifuldestinations --interactions-count 20-30 --likes-count 1-3 --follow-percentage 20 --repeat 120-180

The script will sequentially interact with 20-30 @natgeo's followers, 20-30 #amazingtrips posts likers, and 20-30 #beautifuldestinations posts likers. During each interaction it will like 1-3 random posts and also follow 20% of interacted users. After finished it will close Instagram app and wait for 120-180 minutes. Then the script will repeat the same (and will repeat infinitely), but already interacted users will be ignored. The list of sources (@natgeo, #amazingtrips and #beutifuldestinations) will be shuffled each time.

All this randomness makes it very hard for Instagram to detect that you're using a bot. However, be careful with number of interactions, because even a human can be banned for violating limits.

Full list of command line arguments

You can also see this list by running with no arguments: python3 start.py.

  --interact hashtag [@username ...]
                        list of hashtags and usernames. Usernames should start
                        with "@" symbol. The script will interact with
                        hashtags' posts likers and with users' followers
  --likes-count 2-4     number of likes for each interacted user, 2 by
                        default. It can be a number (e.g. 2) or a range (e.g.
                        2-4)
  --total-likes-limit 300
                        limit on total amount of likes during the session, 300
                        by default
  --interactions-count 60-80
                        number of interactions per each blogger, 70 by
                        default. It can be a number (e.g. 70) or a range (e.g.
                        60-80). Only successful interactions count
  --repeat 120-180      repeat the same session again after N minutes after
                        completion, disabled by default. It can be a number of
                        minutes (e.g. 180) or a range (e.g. 120-180)
  --follow-percentage 50
                        follow given percentage of interacted users, 0 by
                        default
  --follow-limit 50     limit on amount of follows during interaction with
                        each one user's followers, disabled by default
  --unfollow 100-200    unfollow at most given number of users. Only users
                        followed by this script will be unfollowed. The order
                        is from oldest to newest followings. It can be a
                        number (e.g. 100) or a range (e.g. 100-200)
  --unfollow-non-followers 100-200
                        unfollow at most given number of users, that don't
                        follow you back. Only users followed by this script
                        will be unfollowed. The order is from oldest to newest
                        followings. It can be a number (e.g. 100) or a range
                        (e.g. 100-200)
  --unfollow-any 100-200
                        unfollow at most given number of users. The order is
                        from oldest to newest followings. It can be a number
                        (e.g. 100) or a range (e.g. 100-200)
  --min-following 100   minimum amount of followings, after reaching this
                        amount unfollow stops
  --device 2443de990e017ece
                        device identifier. Should be used only when multiple
                        devices are connected at once
  --old                 add this flag to use an old version of uiautomator.
                        Use it only if you experience problems with the
                        default version
  --remove-mass-followers 10
                        Remove given number of mass followers from the list of
                        your followers. "Mass followers" are those who has
                        more than N followings, where N can be set via --max-
                        following
  --max-following 1000  Should be used together with --remove-mass-followers.
                        Specifies max number of followings for any your
                        follower, 1000 by default

FAQ

• How to stop the script?
  Ctrl+C (control+C for Mac)

• Can I prevent my phone from falling asleep while the script is working?
  Yes. Settings -> Developer Options -> Stay awake.

• What to do if I got soft ban (cannot like/follow/comment)?
  Clear Instagram application data. You'll have to login again and then it will work as usual. But it's highly recommended to lower your interactions count for the future and take a pause with the script.

• How to connect Android phone via WiFi?

• How to run on 2 or more devices at once?

• Script crashes with OSError: RPC server not started! or ReadTimeoutError

Extra features

All core features in this project are free to use. But you may want to get more fine grained control over the bot via these features:

• Filtering - skip unwanted accounts by various parameters, more here
• Removing mass followers - automate "cleaning" your account
• Analytics tool - build presentation that shows your growth, more here
• Scrapping (next release) - will make interactions significantly safer and faster

Activate these features by supporting our small team on Patreon: https://insomniac-bot.com/activate/.

Source code

Since core features are free to use, their code is right here in the src folder. You can help the community by making a pull request. It will be added to the packaged version after successful review. To work with sources, please

1. Clone the project: git clone https://github.com/alexal1/Insomniac.git
2. Go to Insomniac folder: cd Insomniac
3. Install required libraries: python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
4. Launch the script via python3 -m src.insomniac

Note that src code may differ from the packaged code. Generally, the packaged code is more stable.

2020-10-31: Right now there's quite big difference, but we will synchronize packaged and opensource version ASAP.

Filtering

You may want to ignore mass-followers (e.g. > 1000 followings) because they are most likely interested only in growing their audience. Or ignore too popular accounts (e.g. > 5000 followers) because they won't notice you. You can do this (and more) by using the filter:

Parameter	Value	Description
skip_business	true/false	skip business accounts if true
skip_non_business	true/false	skip non-business accounts if true
min_followers	100	skip accounts with less followers than given value
max_followers	5000	skip accounts with more followers than given value
min_followings	10	skip accounts with less followings than given value
max_followings	1000	skip accounts with more followings than given value
min_potency_ratio	1	skip accounts with ratio (followers/followings) less than given value (decimal values can be used too)
follow_private_or_empty	true/false	private/empty accounts also have a chance to be followed if true

You can read detailed explanation and instructions how to use it in the Patreon post (you'll have to join $10 tier).

Whitelist and Blacklist

Whitelist – affects --remove-mass-followers, --unfollow and all other unfollow actions. Users from this list will never be removed from your followers or unfollowed.

Blacklist - affects all other actions. Users from this list will be skipped immediately: no interactions and no following.

Go to Insomniac folder and create a folder named as your Instagram nickname (or open an existing one, as Insomniac creates such folder when launched). Create there a file whitelist.txt or blacklist.txt (or both of them). Write usernames in these files, one username per line, no @'s, no commas. Don't forget to save. That's it!

Analytics

There also is an analytics tool for this bot. It is a script that builds a report in PDF format. The report contains account's followers growth graphs for different periods. Liking, following and unfollowing actions' amounts are on the same axis to determine bot effectiveness. The report also contains stats of sessions length for different configurations that you've used. All data is taken from sessions.json file that's generated during bot's execution.

To get access to the analytics tool you have to join Patreon $10 tier.

Features in progress

• Follow given percentage of interacted users by --follow-percentage 50
• Unfollow given number of users (only those who were followed by the script) by --unfollow 100
• Unfollow given number of non-followers (only those who were followed by the script) by --unfollow-non-followers 100
• Support intervals for likes and interactions count like --likes-count 2-3
• Interaction by hashtags
• Add random actions to behave more like a human (watch your own feed, stories, etc.)
• Commenting during interaction

Why Insomniac?

There already are Instagram automation tools that work either on Instagram web version or via Instagram private API. Unfortunately, both ways have become dangerous to use. Instagram bots detection system is very suspicious to browser actions now. And as for private API – you will be blocked forever if Instagram detects that you're using it.

That's why need arised in a solution for mobile devices. Instagram can't distinguish bot from a human when it comes to your phone. However, even a human can reach limits when using the app, so don't fail to be careful. Always set --total-likes-limit to 300 or less. Also it's better to use --repeat to act periodically for 2-3 hours, because Instagram keeps track of how long the app works.

Community

We have a Discord server which is the most convenient place to discuss all bugs, new features, Instagram limits, etc. If you're not familiar with Discord, you can also join our Telegram chat. And finally, all useful info is posted on our Patreon page.