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Update to Like, Comment, and Share Functionality

June 28, 2016ByGaurav Kumar

When people read articles on Facebook, they often want to react to, comment on, and share what they've read with their friends. To enable this behavior within Instant Articles, we are introducing support for Like, Comment, and Share buttons both at the bottom of an Instant Article and on media that appears within your articles (photos videos, slideshows, and GIFs).

Beginning July 14, these feedback buttons will be automatically added to your articles and to media assets embedded within your articles on iOS; we will begin to gradually introduce the article-level feedback buttons on Android on July 21. If you wish to remove these buttons from either surface, admins can easily do so in the Feedback Settings section starting today. Read below for more details.

New Feedback Buttons

You can now add the Like, Comment, and Share button in two places in your Instant Articles to drive engagement:

Article level

We're adding Like, Comment, and Share buttons at the bottom of your articles to give people more ways to engage with your stories. Likes and Comments captured here will be tied to the article itself and are separate from the Like and Comment counts on the post in News Feed. All of these interactions are taken into account when deciding who sees your content in News Feed.

Asset level

We've found that some readers want to comment on and share individual photos and videos they see in an article, especially if they are visually engaging. With this update, we've made it easy to add Like, Comment, and Share buttons to all media assets within your articles.

Managing the feedback buttons

Beginning July 14 on iOS and July 21 on Android, the Like, Comment, and Share buttons will be added in all of your articles, both old and new, by default for people using the Facebook app on iOS versions 59 and newer, and Android versions 86 and newer. Today admins can manage the settings of these buttons in their Publisher Tools, using master controls, and in the mark-up of individual articles.

To manage the feedback buttons for all articles together, follow these steps to find the Feedback Settings controls:

  1. Click 'Publishing Tools' at the top of your Page.
  2. Click 'Configuration' under 'Instant Articles' in the left navigation bar.
  3. Scroll down to the 'Tools' panel, select 'Feedback Settings,' and set your preferences on showing or not showing the feedback buttons.

For individual articles, you can more granularly manage the article level feedback settings in your markup. You will be able to learn how to do so in our developer documentation.

Comment Mirroring and Moderation

We know that comments are an important part of the article experience, so we're excited to share that comment mirroring and moderation will be available for reactions and comments on the article level.

  • Comment Mirroring: For publishers who have the Facebook Comments Plugin installed on their site, comments on a web article will be synced with its Instant Article equivalent, syncing the conversation on both surfaces. If you have Comment Mirroring turned on for the Comments Plugin, comments from the Instant Article will sync with the web version of the article to create a unified thread.
  • Comment Moderation: Publishers can also use the Comment Plugin's moderation tools, for example the ability to blacklist words and phrases. Comment moderation is available on article-level comments but not on individual assets. Coupled with Comment Mirroring, publishers can manage the conversation around their stories on web and in Instant Articles by setting the same tone in both.

We hope the new feedback buttons encourage more readers to engage and interact with your Instant Articles, and we look forward to hearing how they are working for our partners.


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