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I have recently started to implement the new Facebook's App Invites feature. The invite is sent, but my friends (or app testers in my case) whom I sent app invites to did not receive any notification.

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Update: I have successfully tested out the feature. But there are something to note, see my self-accepted answer below.

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Having followed the tutorial, but I don't know if anything is misconfigured or how to debug the process.

So my questions are:

  1. Does app invites feature needs an actual App Store app ID to be configured in the App Link meta header tag? Because, as far as I understand this feature, the main purpose of this is to recommend my friends to try out an app that I like. The app I working on is still under development, and I see that the App Store ID field on App Link generator tool is optional. So I think when I shared an development app to my friends, they wouldn't receive the messages.

  2. In the callback of of current FBSDKAppInviteDialogDelegate delegate methods, specifically appInviteDialog:didCompleteWithResults:, what kind of Invite Sent success result should I received when the invite is actually sent? Because, currently as I tested, when the invite is sent from Facebook's app invites dialog, if I press Send and if the sending process success, the above delegate will only return boolean value of 1 for didComplete key. Not sure if didComplete is that the invite was sent to the receiver, or does it meant didFinished?

Side note related to (2.): In recent App Invite introduction video at F8, at 18:47, there was an indicator with an letter with "Invite Sent!" text below. When I tested out, I didn't see that. Could this be a (nice) beta feature?

Vinh Nguyen
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  • Hi Did you find out what was in the success results for appInviteDialog:didCompleteWithResults ? – user499846 Apr 02 '15 at 21:42
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    Hi, you can just add an logging to the delegate result. Normally, if we came back to our app just by pressing the *Cancel* button in the Facebook App Invite sheet, there will be an additional key `completionGesture` in the `result` dictionary. So if to want to check for success result (user did sent invite), you can use [this snippet](https://gist.github.com/vinhnx/817fe5de3dd5c88e491e). From there you can show a success HUD or something to indicate the success result. – Vinh Nguyen Apr 03 '15 at 00:44
  • Thanks @vinh - for some reason the invite never succeeds when I test it - the progress bar gets to around 25% before failing. I was really hoping to get something in the delegate callback to advise which users had been invited - my app needs some reference to this in order to set up a community - as I am unable to get a list of all the users facebook friends (my app is not a game or utilising facebook canvas) I was hoping the invite friends would be a useable alternative - kinda sucks that games have preference to utility apps :( – user499846 Apr 03 '15 at 09:02
  • I think in your case, when sending invites fails, you might want to check if your AppLink is setup correctly. https://developers.facebook.com/quickstarts/?platform=app-links-host – Vinh Nguyen Apr 03 '15 at 09:05

3 Answers3

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So, after some research. To recap, in order to test the App Invite on your development app, there are something to note:

  • First and foremost: The first you have to do before implement the app invite feature is that you have to upgrade your project's Facebook iOS SDK to latest version 4.0. So more work to migrate from 3.x to 4.x

To send app invites you must use version 4.0 or later of the Facebook SDK for iOS - see the note here

  • The best way is to test with your Testers accounts, who has access to app in development mode (If you don't have, you can add your test Facebook user in Roles tab in your Facebook app dashboard).
  • Your should test with both users on Facebook's native mobile app (NOT simulator/device mobile browser) in order to see your invite push notification. But first, check whether the app you want to send is installed on your mobile before or not; if it is not installed, you should received push notification (see comment from FB developer advocate here).
  • Last but not least: make sure you configure both your app correctly, the steps are very minimal and easy to follow, make sure there is not any typo in your scheme and your invite code.
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Vinh Nguyen
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  • hey thanks for sharing this recap. I followed this steps but I still not receiving notification. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I followed steps described [here](https://developers.facebook.com/quickstarts/?platform=app-links-host) and my app link works fine. I don't understand why my test user didn't receive notification (not push). Anyone have an idea ? – youssman May 03 '15 at 01:12
  • I can't test this functionality in development environment. If I don't give an 'iPhone Store ID' I don't receive notification ... – youssman May 03 '15 at 03:04
  • Hmm... I think that's normal! Because in order to be tested in debug mode and later used in production mode, app must be configured on developer portal. – Vinh Nguyen May 03 '15 at 11:36
  • Sorry, I meant Apple Developer portal to be exact. Glad my recap helps you. – Vinh Nguyen May 04 '15 at 08:32
  • I forgot to precise that with the prod app, notifications works but not push. Wired ?? I passed an entire journey looking for explanations to figure this out, but no results – youssman May 04 '15 at 08:33
  • My app is configured in the Apple Developer portal. There is a particular configuration for this case ? Thank you for your answer – youssman May 04 '15 at 08:35
  • Did you test on mobile? The app which you are inviting had been installed before? – Vinh Nguyen May 04 '15 at 08:35
  • Yes I tested on mobile. Yes it has been installed before – youssman May 04 '15 at 08:37
  • I think you can delete the app and try again. – Vinh Nguyen May 04 '15 at 08:38
  • When the app is installed I don't receive notification and when I deleted I receive notification, but no push notification. – youssman May 04 '15 at 08:39
  • If my informations are good, I can send invitation to my friends with the app installed and when they click on the invitation it opens the app, it's for this reason why we config the app to handle deep linking, no ? – youssman May 04 '15 at 08:41
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    Also **live App ID** from iTunes Connect **must be filled** in in Facebook App settings. – Ondrej Hanak Jul 08 '15 at 08:17
  • Thanks for your valuable answer. – Mohammad Zaid Pathan Sep 07 '15 at 08:12
  • @VinhNguyen , Why did you removed "viewing on desktop would show nothing"? Wasn't it true.? – Mohammad Zaid Pathan Sep 07 '15 at 09:56
  • @ZaidPathan Hi, I removed that part because I realized I was mentioning about receiving [push notification on mobile](http://stackoverflow.com/posts/29385325/revisions). And if you head to Facebook web on desktop, you would normally see the app invite notification in the right panel :) – Vinh Nguyen Sep 07 '15 at 10:01
  • @VinhNguyen , Sorry but I didn't find invite notification in browser. – Mohammad Zaid Pathan Sep 07 '15 at 12:04
  • @wassimboy How did you solved the problem with push notifications? I don't receive push notifications but I receive facebook notifications. – Oli Sep 21 '15 at 12:34
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Found a similar question here and answered it:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/30929118/4888794

Basically, the notifications only appear in the Facebook Mobile App and not on the FB website.

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Tyler White
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Thank you!

Your should test with both users on Facebook's native mobile app (NOT simulator/device mobile browser) in order to see your invite notification, viewing on desktop would show nothing.

Really on desktop I did not have invitations but on device got it!

Svitlana
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