Are you aware of the breaking changes to the Facebook API that are happening at the end of April? They will affect all Apps still using the v1.0 Graph API.

Over the last year, Facebook has been moving towards the new v2.1 Graph API. Here are some of the important changes that will take effect for all apps using the v1.0 API at the end of April:

1. Users can now choose to decline any permissions your app requests, except for their public profile. As a result, if a user declines a permission that is critical to your app’s performance, your app will offer the user a broken login experience unless it has been updated.

2. Users’ friends’ information (including pictures, profile information, etc.) is now restricted unless their friends are already using your app.

3. User IDs will no longer remain constant across apps. They will now be different and unique and referred to as app-scoped user IDs.

These are significant changes to the way that Facebook shares User and Friend data through the Graph API. As a result, Fission has joined Facebook’s new Media Solutions program that offers some opportunities to access Facebook’s data through other avenues including their Public Feed API.  

To learn more about the changes involved in Facebook’s new graph API update, you can watch the full tutorial video the developers at Facebook put together.

If your app has not been updated by April 30th, it will be automatically updated to v2.x, which will result in a broken login experience for your app users.

As you think about what this means for your existing Facebook App, I’m more than happy to hop on the phone to talk through what needs to happen to upgrade your app, including how you can properly handle declined permissions, ensure your app and database work with app-scoped user IDs, and redesign any features relying on users’ friends’ data.
 

Feel free to contact our team at Fission if you’d like to talk. And share this post if you found it informative!