Getting Started with the Facebook SDK for Android

This documentation explains how to get started integrating your Android app with Facebook by using the Facebook SDK for Android. The current version of the Facebook SDK for Android is version 12.0.0 and requires the Android API 15. For more information about versions and features, see Facebook SDK for Android.

Beginning with SDK v13.0, set to release in early 2022, a Client Token will be required for all calls to the Graph API.

You can set up your app to use the Facebook SDK for Android in the following ways:

By using the Quick Start.
By setting up your project with the Facebook SDK for Android.

Quick Start

To get a Facebook App ID, configure your app's settings, and import the Facebook SDK for Android, click on the button below and follow the instructions.

Quick Start for Android

Android Studio Setup

To use the Facebook SDK in an Android Studio project, add the SDK as a build dependency and import the SDK.

Go to Android Studio | New Project | Minimum SDK.
Select API 15: Android 4.0.3 (IceCreamSandwich) or higher and create your new project.
After you create a new project, open Gradle Scripts | build.gradle (Project: <your_project> and do the following:

Add the following to the buildscript { repositories {}} section of the build.gradle (Project) file:
```
mavenCentral()
```
Save and close build.gradle (Project: <your_project>).

Open Gradle Scripts | build.gradle (Module: app) and do the following:

Add the following to the dependencies {} section of your build.gradle (module: app) file to compile the latest version of the Facebook SDK for Android:
```
implementation 'com.facebook.android:facebook-android-sdk:latest.release'
```
When you use the Facebook SDK, some events in your app are automatically logged and collected unless you disable automatic event logging. For details about what information is collected and how to disable automatic event logging, see Automatic App Event Logging.
Save and close build.gradle (Module: app).

Build your project. Now you can import com.facebook.FacebookSdk into your app.

Add Your Facebook App ID and Client Token

Add your Facebook App ID and Client Token to your project's strings file and update your Android manifest:

1. Open your /app/res/values/strings.xml file.

2. Add a string element with the name attribute facebook_app_id and value as your Facebook App ID to the file. For example

<string name="facebook_app_id">Facebook App ID</string>
<string name="facebook_client_token">Facebook Client ID</string>

3. Open /app/manifests/AndroidManifest.xml

4. Add a uses-permission element to the manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

5. Add a meta-data element to the application element:

<application android:label="@string/app_name" ...>
    ...
    <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.ApplicationId" android:value="@string/facebook_app_id"/>
    <meta-data android:name="com.facebook.sdk.ClientToken" android:value="@string/facebook_client_token"/>
    ...
</application>

Sending Images or Videos

If you're sharing links, images or video via the Facebook for Android app, you also need to declare the FacebookContentProvider in the manifest.

Append your app id to the end of the authorities value. For example if your Facebook app id is 1234, the declaration looks like:

<provider android:authorities="com.facebook.app.FacebookContentProvider1234"
          android:name="com.facebook.FacebookContentProvider"
          android:exported="true" />

Running Sample Apps

The following samples come with the Facebook SDK for Android:

HelloFacebookSample — Demonstrates profile access, status updates and photo upload.
RPSSample — Use Native Share Dialog, Open Graph publishing, pickers, invites, and deep linking.
Scrumptious — Login, requests, pickers, picture uploads, and Open Graph publishing.

You can experiment with samples by importing the Facebook SDK into an Android Studio project. The samples have a project dependency rather than a central repository dependency via maven central or jcenter. This is so that when a local copy of the SDK gets updates, the samples reflect the changes.

To run samples apps quickly, you can generate key hashes for your development environments. Add these to your Facebook developer profile for the sample apps. Keytool, for generating the key hashes, is included with the Java SE Development Kit (JDK) that you installed as part of setting up your development environment. OpenSSL is available for download from OpenSSL.

On OS X, run:

keytool -exportcert -alias androiddebugkey -keystore ~/.android/debug.keystore | openssl sha1 -binary | openssl base64

On Windows, you need the following:

Key and Certificate Management Tool (keytool) from the Java Development Kit
OpenSSL for Windows Library from the Google Code Archive

Run the following command in a command prompt in the Java SDK folder. This generates a 28 character string.

keytool -exportcert -alias androiddebugkey -keystore %HOMEPATH%\.android\debug.keystore | openssl sha1 -binary | openssl
base64

Go to the Facebook Developer site. Log into Facebook and, using the dropdown menu in the top-right, go to Developer Settings:

In your developer settings, select Sample App from the menu, and add and save your key hash into your profile:

You can add multiple key hashes if you develop with multiple machines.

You can now compile and run all of the samples - including those that use Facebook Login.

Create a Development Key Hash

Facebook uses the key hash to authenticate interactions between your app and the Facebook app. If you run apps that use Facebook Login, you need to add your Android development key hash to your Facebook developer profile.

For the version of your app that you release to you also need to generate and set a Release Key Hash.

On either OS X or Windows you can get a key hash by generating it or by using the value returned by Settings.getApplicationSignature(Context). For instructions, see Running Sample Apps .

Create a Release Key Hash

To authenticate the exchange of information between your app and the Facebook, you need to generate a release key hash and add this to the Android settings within your Facebook App ID. Without this, your Facebook integration may not work properly when you release your app to the store.

In a previous step, you should have updated your Facebook Developer Settings with the key hashes for your development environments.

When publishing your app, it is typically signed with a different signature to your development environment. Therefore, you want to make sure you create a Release Key Hash and add this to the Android settings for Facebook App ID.

To generate a hash of your release key, run the following command on Mac or Windows substituting your release key alias and the path to your keystore.

On Mac OS, run:

keytool -exportcert -alias <RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS> -keystore <RELEASE_KEY_PATH> | openssl sha1 -binary | openssl base64

On Windows, you need the following:

Key and Certificate Management Tool (keytool) from the Java Development Kit
OpenSSL for Windows Library from the Google Code Archive

Run the following command in a command prompt in the Java SDK folder:

keytool -exportcert -alias <RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS> -keystore <RELEASE_KEY_PATH> | PATH_TO_OPENSSL_LIBRARY\bin\openssl sha1 -binary | PATH_TO_OPENSSL_LIBRARY\bin\openssl base64

Make sure to use the password that you set when you first created the release key.

This command should generate a 28 characher string. Copy and paste this Release Key Hash into your Facebook App ID's Android settings.

You should also check that your Facebook App ID's Android setting also contain the correct package name and main activity class for your Android package.

Use the Facebook SDK for Android with Maven

You can declare the Maven dependency with the latest available version of the Facebook SDK for Android.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.facebook.android</groupId>
  <artifactId>facebook-android-sdk</artifactId>
  <version>PUT_LATEST_VERSION_HERE</version>
</dependency>

Troubleshooting Sample Apps

If you have a problem running a sample app, it may be related to the key hash. You may see one of the following scenarios:

A native Login Dialog appears but after accepting the permissions you are still in a logged out state. The logcat also contains an exception:

12-20 10:23:24.507: W/fb4a:fb:OrcaServiceQueue(504):
com.facebook.orca.protocol.base.ApiException: remote_app_id does not match stored id

A non-native Login Dialog appears with an error message: ''..App is Misconfigured for facebook login...''.

Check your key hash and you can make sure you use the correct key hash. I

You can also manually modify the sample code to use the right key hash. For example in HelloFacebookSampleActivity class make a temporary change to the onCreate():

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    
    // Add code to print out the key hash
    try {
        PackageInfo info = getPackageManager().getPackageInfo(
                "com.facebook.samples.hellofacebook", 
                PackageManager.GET_SIGNATURES);
        for (Signature signature : info.signatures) {
            MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA");
            md.update(signature.toByteArray());
            Log.d("KeyHash:", Base64.encodeToString(md.digest(), Base64.DEFAULT));
            }
    } catch (NameNotFoundException e) {
        
    } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException e) {
        
    }
    
    ...

Save your changes and re-run the sample. Check your logcat output for a message similar to this:

12-20 10:47:37.747: D/KeyHash:(936): 478uEnKQV+fMQT8Dy4AKvHkYibo=

Save the key hash in your developer profile. Re-run the samples and verify that you can log in successfully.