Facebook announced that it is making new developer tools announced at f8 available to developers and users. That would be the redesigned Auth Dialog and a new authentication flow, designed to give developers greater control over how people first interact with their apps.
“We rebuilt the Auth Dialog to make the authentication process easier for people to understand, so they’re more likely to install your app,” says Facebook’s Rushi Desai. “In addition to uploading a logo, all developers can now display a headline and description of their app in the new dialog. User permissions are now more clearly presented and organized. And we’ve introduced an in-line privacy selector for apps that request publishing permissions to provide users with more control over activity from apps.”
The new dialog supports Open Graph previews, which means users will be able to preview how their activity in the app will actually show up in their timeline.
Extended permissions will be displayed on a second screen, and there is a new area on that screen that lets you explain why you need the permissions in your app. If people know your intentions, they may be more likely to give you their permissions. Of course, on the other hand, depending on what your intentions are, they may be less likely.
Users will be able to grant only access to the extended permissions that they wish.
Developers can turn on the new Auth dialog by going to “advanced settings” in the Developer App.
You can then also turn on Authenticated referrals. “Authenticated Referrals streamlines the auth process for users and allows apps to receive a greater number of connected users,” explains Desai. “With the feature enabled, any link on Facebook to your app will prompt the user with an in-line Auth Dialog and ask them to authenticate before navigating to your app. The experience is fast, familiar, and happens while the user is still on Facebook. This way, apps that require Authenticated Referrals don’t need to redirect traffic to an separate login flow, and users can have a social experience the moment they arrive at your app.”
In Insights, Facebook will provide the number of dialog impressions and accepts, the sources of connected users, and privacy settings that people are selecting for your content.
