Social - Facebook and Instagram Functionality Changes
Facebook and Instagram Functionality Changes
Facebook Groups are back:
We've been working with Facebook to re-gain access to Facebook Groups and are happy to announce that we now have access again. This is, however, still restricted in some cases. This is something we're still working on with Facebook and will provide further information as and when we have this.
Restrictions are applicable if you are a White Label or have purchased rebranding for Facebook. In this case, if you wish to connect and post to a Facebook Group:
Rebranded Apps:
You will need to add Facebook Groups via the standard Facebook Groups option under Services > Facebook > Facebook Groups. The option to add Facebook Groups services under the Rebranded tab is still not available.
What's happening?
Facebook is currently making changes to the way that all third parties and partners access Facebook users' data in order to ensure that this information protected. This was sparked by the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook is working hard to win back the trust of their users and protect their privacy going forward.
While these changes will impact the services and functionality for the Facebook and Instagram platforms, we support these changes as they are in the best interests of users on Facebook and Instagram.
In this first round of changes, the following services and features will be affected:
Facebook functionality changes
Facebook Direct Messaging: A
As of April 4th, 2018, the ability to access Facebook direct messages will no longer be available. This means that direct message streams will not work and direct messages will no longer be brought through to the Priority Inbox.
What we're doing:
- The ability to set up Facebook Streams for Direct Messages will be removed from the dashboard.
Facebook Searches:
As of April 4th, Facebook is no longer supporting the Search portion of their API for the foreseeable future. This means that the following features will no longer function:
- Facebook Page tagging.
- Displaying Facebook Profile/Page information.
- Searching for Facebook users when adding a contact.
- Searching for Instagram users when adding a contact.
Whilst this is not immediately impacting Live Facebook Searches or the ability to bring through results from Facebook for Keyword and Brand Monitors, this may be impacted at a later stage.
What we're doing:
The following functionality will be removed from the dashboard:
- Tagging of Facebook Pages from the Compose Box.
- The option to view Facebook Page/Profile information.
- The ability to search for Facebook and Instagram profiles when adding a contact.
Instagram functionality changes
As of April 10th, Instagram is no longer supporting the majority of functionality which was available via their old API platform. This will not affect posting to Instagram profiles (including Instagram Business profiles) as that's supported by Facebook and Instagram Post services. However, this does mean that the following services and features for Instagram will not be supported for the foreseeable future:
- Instagram Auto Likes service (also known as the Instagram automation app).
- Displaying Instagram user information.
- Commenting on posts where the post has not been created by the user looking to comment on that post.
- Reporting data for Instagram will be pulled less frequently as they are limiting the amount of data that third-party apps can request.
- Instagram Streams will be view only -- the ability to like and unlike Instagram posts and to follow and unfollow Instagram users will no longer be possible.
What we're doing:
The following functionality will be removed from the dashboard:
- The ability to create new Instagram Auto Likes services. Existing Instagram Auto Likes services will be removed on or shortly after the date above.
- The ability to view more information about an Instagram user.
- The ability to like and unlike Instagram posts.
- The ability to follow and unfollow Instagram users.
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