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As a mobile app, how can I allow a user to privately invite specific Facebook friends to use the app?

The Message Dialog seems to be the suggested way, however this only works if the user has Facebook Messenger installed. Are there any alternatives which aren't dependent on Facebook Messenger being installed?

Background

As of v2.0 of the Graph API, it is no longer possible to get a full list of a user's friends. The suggested alternatives are:

  • For tagging friends, use /me/taggable_friends
  • For games, use /me/invitable_friends
  • For invites, use Send Dialog (for Web) or Message Dialog (for iOS and Android)

My use case is inviting friends to use my app, so I have gone with the third option. However the Message Dialog is dependent on Facebook Messenger being installed, and Send Dialog does not work on mobile:

This dialog can be used with the JavaScript SDK and by performing a full redirect to a URL. It is not supported on mobile devices.

Are Facebook likely to support Send Dialog on mobile at any point?

I'd have thought inviting friends to use a mobile app is quite a common scenario, yet I can't find any good way to do this. Help!

Community
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Dr Otter
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    You are correct. You can't use the Send Dialog if the user haven't got Facebook Messenger. Luckily a huge amount of people does. – WizKid Feb 04 '15 at 16:46
  • possible duplicate of [Facebook Graph Api v2.0+ - /me/friends returns empty, or only friends who also use my app](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23417356/facebook-graph-api-v2-0-me-friends-returns-empty-or-only-friends-who-also-u) – phwd Feb 04 '15 at 16:56
  • @WizKid Even if 50% have Facebook Messenger, there's still another 50% where this is completely broken. I can't just ignore people who don't have Messenger! – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:04
  • @phwd - Why the downvote? This isn't a duplicate. I actually referenced the question you said! This is about the limitations of Send Dialog. – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:04
  • i don´t work at facebook, but it does not seem crazy for me that you can only get the friends who authorized your app too :) - it´s actually a good thing, privacy and stuff. – andyrandy Feb 04 '15 at 17:10
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    There is no other way. The Send and Share dialog is the only way. – WizKid Feb 04 '15 at 17:12
  • @luschn If a user can access their friend list through the facebook website, why shouldn't they be able to do the same through the API? – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:21
  • @WizKid ok, thanks - it just seems strange that Send Dialog isn't available on mobile! Do you think Facebook are likely to add this at some point? – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:24
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    that´s a very bad argument. a lot of stuff that is available on the website is not accessible via the api. it would make scraping a lot easier - which is not allowed anyway. many platforms do not offer any API at all, offering an API does not mean everything should be available exactly like it is on the website. – andyrandy Feb 04 '15 at 17:24
  • Everything mentioned here was already mentioned in the answer by Simon Cross (a Facebook employee) including the send dialog alternative. If there was another suggestion it will have already been mentioned in that question. Therefore is no need for this question, it is an exact duplicate begging for an alternative that doesn't exist. – phwd Feb 04 '15 at 17:29
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    @luschn Why is it ok for games to get the user's friend list, but not apps? I've (reluctantly) accepted this decision. I'm now just trying to make the Send Dialog work. – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:47
  • @phwd The question didn't go into any detail about the Send Dialog and how it's not available on mobile. I was hoping to get more information here and maybe find out I missed something! – Dr Otter Feb 04 '15 at 17:49
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    You are not missing anything. Use the Send or Share dialog – WizKid Feb 04 '15 at 17:57
  • games don´t get the friend list. only if you invite friends, that´s a very specific thing and you only get invite tokens - not the real (well, actually scoped) ids. – andyrandy Feb 04 '15 at 23:16
  • Just edited my question to clarify what I'm after and to get away from the whole v2.0 privacy changes debate. – Dr Otter Feb 05 '15 at 01:09

2 Answers2

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I would recommend you to use Message Dialog unless you have a Canvas version of your app. If so, you could use Request Dialog. I've been fighting with this too, and that's the conclusion I have. Facebook's horrible, unclear, and unorganized documentation made me follow tutorials on invites with Request Dialogs, to finally see that some things were not working as expected because I don't have a canvas version.

agustinaliagac
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Try using Requests. It lets you invite/notify friends and doesnt need fb messenger.

jespo77
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