Platform Policy: Facebook Now Telling Developers to Only Publish One Image in Feed Stories
While Facebook’s publishing rules around feed stories have been pretty stable for a while now, we’re hearing from developers that Facebook has been reaching out and “strongly recommending” that developers change the format of their feed stories to only include one image (instead of three) by next Monday, September 28.
Why? Facebook’s Platform team is telling developers that it wants app feed stories to look less “spammy” and more like Facebook’s own feed stories. Some apps have been publishing three images in each feed item, each the maximum allowable size under the current specs, in order to get more clicks and attention in the stream.
In other words, Facebook is getting more strict with the content that apps put in the feed as a part of its overall efforts to preserve the user experience in the long run. Now, developers will not be able to use the three image slots to effectively form one larger image in the feed – a step that shouldn’t create major problems for developer businesses, but will certainly decrease click-through rates on feed items in the near term.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Where is this part of the Facebook policy? I cannot find it anywhere that says the deadline is Monday.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:25 am
hello, i also haven’t seen feed update policy like this in facebook wiki
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Additional_Policies_Governing_All_Applications_and_Developers#5._Feed_Policy
September 25th, 2009 at 10:26 am
[...] Justin Smith has a nice update about Facebook feed image policies. [...]
September 25th, 2009 at 11:31 am
There hasn’t been an official update to the policy docs as far as I can tell yet. Facebook is currently reaching out to developers asking them to make the change.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Good, it should be policy.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
And I don’t support this new update feed policy, if an user thinks any app’s feed is spammy he/she easily can hide that app’s feed. Some apps show so nicely feed message using 3 or more images, that is impossible by using only one image.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
If users think they are spammy and annoying, users should not post them in the first place. If users seeing it find it annoying and spammy, they should block those feeds.
I do not see a reason to enforce this as a policy. Users have the tools to decide for themselves what they want to see and what they do not want to see.
I am frustrated that Facebook thinks these kinds of things should be resolved through policies that only kill the platform even more than it is. What is the point of a social network when all viralness is cut off?
September 25th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
@Francis Pelland, yeah you’re right. I’m totally agree with you.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Good move to reduce homepage clutter.
Another way may be to ban “common images” in feed stories like “today’s” and “luck” in the example given n blog post.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Good move to reduce homepage clutter.
Another way may be to ban “common images” in feed stories like “today’s” and “luck” in the example given n blog post, while sparing “83%”.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
have they increased the width of one single image after this change, from 130px to 390px so that developer can at-least try to show a bigger image for a good user experience ??
September 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
[...] and the growing trend of larger (and more annoying) imagery. Facebook has clearly noticed because, according to InsideFacebook, they have issued a new platform policy requiring publishers to use one in-stream image…. [...]
September 28th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Can anyone confirm whether it is a new policy or just a request from Facebook?
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 am
[...] that will allow users to expand all three images in line. We reported a month ago that Facebook was telling developers to start using just one image because it wants app feed stories to look less “spammy” and more like Facebook’s own feed [...]