Facebook Permissions

In order to get the most out of Teak you will need to ask your users to grant your app some Facebook permissions. Messaging what you are asking for, and knowing when to ask for these permissions is key to getting the best results from Teak.

What Are Facebook Permissions?

In order to get information about your users, or to post things through Teak, your users need to grant permissions to your app.

Basic Permissions

Basic permissions allow you to read the following information about every user that uses Facebook to sign in to your desktop, mobile, or web application:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Gender
  • Locale
  • Age range (Under 18, 18-20, or 21+)
  • Friends

This information becomes available to you when a user signs in with Facebook in your app.

Publish Actions

The publish_actions permission allows Teak to post Open Graph stories to Facebook. Here is an example of a story posted by Teak:

Tournament

Once your app is granted the publish_actions permission, you don't need to ask for it again. Facebook designed the Open Graph story channel with seamless sharing in mind. Teak doesn't make "wall spam", because "wall spam" doesn't work.

When To Ask For Permissions

The best time to ask for permissions in your app is when the user wants to access functionality which relies on those permissions.

For example, let the user sign in to Facebook when they are creating an account. This makes it very clear why you are asking them to sign in with Facebook, and the user expects it. Don't simply ask them to sign in when the app starts. They have no idea what they are signing in for or why, and they are likely to decline granting permissions.

Another good example is asking the user to sign in to Facebook to access friends functionality. The user understands intuitively that they want to bring their friends into the experience, and the easiest way to do that is with Facebook.

To ask for the publish_actions permission, it is often best to ask them to share content from your app to Facebook, and then request the permission if they agree. The best kind of content is personalized and

Do What Works for Your App

There is no 'formula' that everyone can follow. Different apps have different functionality and so you will need to figure out what works best for your app.

Take a look at other apps that are similar to yours to see how they do Facebook sign in, and ask for permissions. Go to your favorite coffee shop and ask people to use your app on your phone, see how they respond.

Finding out what works best for your app can take some time if you have never done it before, but the payoffs will be big for making sure as much of your userbase as possible is connected to your app with Facebook.

Recap

Teak needs the publish_actions permission in order to post stories from your app. Figuring out the best way to ask your users to sign in to Facebook and grant the publish_actions permission is essential to making your app grow fast.

Got questions? Ask us! We have a lot of experience helping our customers with Facebook permissions, and we can help you too.