A 17 year-old college student could face a battle with Instagram after hacking the popular photo-sharing app. Caleb Benn, a Californian high school student, recently developed a $4.99 (£3.24) app for iOS devices using Instagram's application program interface. Called 'Uploader for Instagram', it allows users to upload photos to Instagram directly from their computer rather than using only their smartphone. Caleb Benn, a Californian high school student, has developed a $4.99 (£3.24) app for iOS devices using Instagram's application program interface (screen shot pictured). Now, the 17 year-old student could face a battle with Instagram over hackings its API . According Jillian Eugenios at CNNMoney, the teenager is currently making $1,000 (£675.70) a day from the app – and Instagram isn't happy. An engineer from Facebook, which owns Instagram, sent Benn an email last week claiming the app violated the company's terms of service. The email asked Benn to 'fix' the app by Monday, but Benn said doing this would make the app would be pointless. 'To be honest, I wasn't nonplussed when I got the email from Facebook,' Benn told DailyMail.com. 'I knew my app was playing in a legal gray area, and I suspected Facebook would find out about it somehow.' Facebook has strict restrictions against using its private API. An engineer from Instagram allegedly sent Benn an email last week, claiming the app violated the company's terms of service. Pictured on the right is a screenshot of the 'Uploader for Instagram' service . Chris Messina, a Silicon Valley technologist told CNNMoney the problem is that accessing the API 'opens up possibilities for all kinds of abuse, from spambots or people uploading stuff from other channels.' One in five Instagram users now combine their photos into a single image before uploading it to the app. To capitalise on this, the Californian firm has launched its latest standalone app called Layout that lets people create such collages with up to nine images and 11 combinations. Photos can be selected from the phone's camera roll, or taken with the Photo Booth tool, and Layouts can then be 'remixed' and edited with mirror effects and flips. The Layout app has four main features called Faces, Mirroring, Photo Booth and Previews. Users begin by selecting as many images, up to the maximum of nine, to feature in the collage. Photos can be selected or deselected at any point. As they add more images, the layout of the collage changes and photos can be dragged between sections and different sized boxes as desired. These photos can then be zoomed, flipped to form a mirror image, or turned upside down. He added, if Instagram wanted users to post from a computer, they can do so themselves. 'I was initially inspired to create the app because I saw a sincerely lacking feature for the desktop,' Benn said. 'I know Instagram purposely left out the uploading feature from the web interface to keep the social network’s unique, mobile-centered ecosystem intact. Instagram did release a web version of its software, called 'Your Instagram Feed on the Web' in February 2013. This allowed users to comment on each other's photos from a desktop, but the photo sharing site still does not allow uploaded of images from a PC. To combat the problem, some Instagram fans have installed special software, such as BlueStacks App Player, designed to simulate a mobile phone operating system on their computer. Uploader for Instagram offers a simpler workaround, and it is already garnering positive reviews on the App store. One user wrote: 'For my job, we post eight to ten Instagram pictures a week that are first designed on the computer. 'So it's always been a bit of a nuisance to transfer the image over to my phone then upload to Instagram. This app takes care of that.' Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012 for $1 billion, has 300 million monthly users. A spokesperson for Instagram declined to comment to DailyMail.com about the developments. Benn told DailyMail.com: 'I’ve played a few of my last cards, and now I’m just going to wait for Facebook to play theirs. 'I have no idea how this entire ordeal is going to end, but at least I know that I helped make a handful of people’s lives easier–and I think that that is worth all of the trouble.' Uploader for Instagram is already garnering positive reviews on the App store.One user wrote: 'For my job, we post eight to ten Instagram pictures a week that are first designed on the computer.'So it's always been a bit of a nuisance to transfer the image over to my phone then upload to Instagram. This app takes care of that'
$4.99 (£3.24) 'Uploader for Instagram' app was created by Caleb Benn . The teenager is currently making $1,000 (£675.70) a day from the app . Instagram allegedly contacted Benn saying it violated terms of service . Facebook, which owns Instagram, says it restricts use of private API .