User Profile API

The User Profile API allows you to use a Page-scoped ID (PSID) to retrieve user profile information that can be used to personalize the experience of people interacting with your Messenger.

Contents

• Availability
  • User Opt-in
  • Profile Unavailable
• Available Profile Fields
• Retrieving a Person's Profile
• Last Ad Referral
• Error Codes

Availability

Though a PSID may be valid, in some cases it may not be able to be used to retrieve a person's profile information. For example PSIDs associated with Instant Games Pages are not accessible via the User Profile API.

User Opt-in

The following events will authorize your Messenger bot to access a person's profile information:

• The person starts the conversation via a welcome screen and tapped the "Get Started" button.
• The person starts the conversation by clicking a "Send to Messenger" button.
• The person starts the conversation by sending a message.
• The person starts the conversation by accepting a Page's message request.
• Your Messenger bot uses the askPermission() function of the Messenger Extensions SDK in the webview to ask for the user_profile permission.
• For apps of type Business, the Business Asset User Profile Access feature is additionally required, and can be applied for via App Review.

Some entry points allow apps to initiate a conversation without granting the app authorization to access the person's public profile. In those cases, the app will be granted permission to access the person's profile after the person replied to the initial message. Notable situations where a person may initiate a conversation with the app, but not authorize profile permission include the following:

• Conversations started via the Checkbox Plugin where the person did not respond on Messenger.
• Interactions with Ads that Click to Messenger before the person has replied on Messenger

Profile Unavailable

Currently, the User Profile API does not support retrieving profile information for Messenger accounts that were created using a phone number.

In this case, the API will return the error code 2018218 along with the message 'No profile available for this user.'

Available Profile Fields

Apps may retrieve the id, name, first_name, last_name, and profile_pic fields for users who have made this information public and have opted-in to your Page. For apps of type Business, the app must first be approved for the Business Asset User Profile Access feature.

Apps can query via the API, which fields are available for a given Page. See Feature Review API.

The following profile fields can be requested:

Requesting feature access to user fields for the Page

1. Go to Page Settings > Advanced Messaging
2. Under 'Info About People' select the field and click the 'Request' button.

App-Level and Page-Level Permissions

The permissions shown above are required at both the app-level and Page-level in order for the fields to be successfully retrieved. App-level review is mandatory. At Page-level these permissions are granted by default, however we recommend that Page admins proactively do a Page-level submission explaining why they need them on that particular Page.

Retrieving a Person's Profile

To use the User Profile API, send a GET request with the profile fields you want for the person:

curl -X GET "https://graph.facebook.com/<PSID>?fields=first_name,last_name,profile_pic&access_token=<PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

If the app is able to access the person's profile, the User Profile API will return a JSON string with the requested fields from the person's profile.

{
  "first_name": "Peter",
  "last_name": "Chang",
  "profile_pic": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-1/p200x200/13055603_10105219398495383_8237637584159975445_n.jpg?oh=1d241d4b6d4dac50eaf9bb73288ea192&oe=57AF5C03&__gda__=1470213755_ab17c8c8e3a0a447fed3f272fa2179ce",
  "locale": "en_US",
  "timezone": -7,
  "gender": "male",
}

If the app is unable to access the person's profile, an empty object is returned.

Last Ad Referral - DEPRECATED

Error Codes