Back to News for Developers

Platform Updates: New Design for Follow Button and Like Box, iOS SDK Improvements and More.

November 21, 2013ByRay C. He

We recently introduced a new design for the Like and Share buttons. We're seeing positive results from the new design and have started rolling it out to the Follow button and the Like Box plugin. We also are releasing a new iOS SDK with feature improvements and bug fixes, removing a policy change for Requests that was previously communicated and are updating our browser requirements for our JavaScript SDK. In addition, we have a new advertising campaign structure coming to Facebook in 2014.

New design for the Follow button and the Like Box plugin

Similar to the Like and Share buttons, the Follow button and the Like Box plugin will also be updated with our new design as follows:

For more details, visit our documentation for the Follow button and the Like Box plugin.

iOS SDK 3.10

We're releasing an updated version of our SDK that includes several feature improvements and some bug fixes to enhance stability. These include:

  • Updated FBSession to receive permissions granted to your app at the time of login without requiring a permissions refresh. This enables your app to more reliably detect the current permission state of your app. This applies for any login flow except the iOS 6+ integrated authentication.
  • Ability to set the selection property of the FBFriendPickerViewController that makes it easy to pre-select friends.
  • Ability to set the login behavior for the FBLoginView control.

For more details and a list of other updates in this release, visit our change log. You can download the SDK here.

Removing policy change for "Select All" and "Pre-Select"

We are removing our previously announced policy change regarding select all and pre-select for Requests, which was set to go into effect on January 8, 2014. We may revisit this policy change in the future, but will also work on other ways to improve user engagement and sentiment for Requests.

Changed browser requirements for the JavaScript SDK

In order for the JavaScript SDK to be able to communicate with Facebook, we now require either native support for HTML5 postMessage, or support for Flash, minimum version 8.0.24. As part of this change, we are no longer supporting the use of the channelUrl initialization option to provide a fallback mechanism.

Campaign structure updates: a better way to organize, optimize and measure ads

We recently shared an update with Facebook Preferred Marketing Developers (PMDs) about a new campaign structure coming to Facebook in 2014. This new structure will make it easier for advertisers to organize, optimize and measure the performance of their ads by introducing a third level to our current campaign structure. The updated structure will include levels for campaign, ad set and ad.

We'll bring these features across all our client-facing ad interfaces in the first half of 2014 -- including the Ads Create Tool, Ads Manager, Power Editor -- and third-party client-facing ad interfaces built by PMDs, FBX partners and Mobile Measurement Partners. These changes won't affect advertisers this year.

Here's what advertisers will be able to do after the update:

  • Specify a campaign objective to make all of its ads serve that objective, and to improve optimization and reporting.
  • Use multiple ad sets, each with their own budget and schedule controls, to optimize spend and delivery within each audience segment or placement.
  • Get better control and aggregate stats, including total reach, at the campaign level.

We'll provide additional details as we get closer to launch. Until then, please remember that these changes will not affect advertisers this year.