Developer Roadmap

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In the spirit of being as open and transparent as possible, we are publishing parts of our roadmap for Facebook Platform. For the first time in this level of detail, we will provide a roadmap to help you anticipate future changes and opportunities. Like all roadmaps, it may shift slightly, but we will share insight into what is happening as these details are available. We'll keep you posted about the progress of these changes and what they mean for you over the next two quarters.

If you have questions about these changes, please share them in our Developer Forum. We'll check in frequently and do our best to answer your questions, and change these documents to reflect the latest plan.

Category Changes Timing Last Updated
Communication Channels


Notifications (Detail) Application-to-user and user-to-user notifications will be removed, and instead developers will use stream, Inbox, and Email. Monday, March 1, 2010.

(30 days after launch of email permission.)

February 1, 2010
Requests (Detail) Requests will be transitioned to Invites and Inbox. Early 2010

[30 days after launching new Inbox sharing]

December 28, 2009
Invites (Detail) Invites will be transitioned to a filter in the Inbox. February 2010 January 8, 2010
Inbox (Detail) Users will be able to share application content with one another via the Inbox. February 2010 January 8, 2010
Stream (Detail) We are adding internationalization support for stream attachments. Early 2010 January 8, 2010




Application Discovery and Navigation


Home page: application navigation (Detail) Application bookmarks will move from the menu bar (bottom of screen) to the left-hand side of home page.

Note: We've recently added more content about how bookmarking behavior will work.

February 2010 January 26, 2010
Counter (Detail) Counter will be a notification channel unique to each application, displayed beside individual application bookmarks.

Update: The APIs are now live. Start your integrations today, in advance of the user launch.

February 2010 January 26, 2010
Dashboards: Applications and Games (Detail) We are developing new dashboards focused on discovery and re-engagement with games and other applications.

Update: The APIs are now live. Start your integrations today, in advance of the user launch.

February 2010 January 26, 2010
Profile (Detail) Application tabs will be the only way to integrate into the Profile. Early 2010 December 3, 2009
Canvas (Detail) Formatting on canvas pages will change to better highlight an application's brand. Early 2010 January 8, 2010
Photos (Detail) We're slightly changing a few photo sizes, including the maximum photo size and profile pictures. Mid January through early 2010 January 19, 2010




Upcoming and changing core components


Open Graph API (Detail) The Open Graph API will allow any page on the web to have all the features of a Facebook Page – users will be able to become a Fan of the page, it will show up on that user’s profile and in search results, and that page will be able to publish stories to the stream of its fans. Early 2010 October 28, 2009
Enhancements to Data Permissions (Detail) We're refreshing privacy settings to give users clear control over how they share data with applications. Early 2010 December 16, 2009
Breaking changes to user FQL table (Detail) In order to significantly improve the performance of certain FQL queries, in 60 days we will return only English strings for the relationship_status, gender, and affiliations.status fields in the user FQL table. February 10, 2010 December 9, 2009




Developer Programs and Simpler Policies


Improved Analytics (Detail) We are going to add more data to the Insights page for an application. Early 2010 October 28, 2009
Revamped developers.facebook.com (Detail) We're working on a revamped developer site including focus on learning, building and getting support. Early 2010 February 9, 2010
New JavaScript Library We're planning to develop and open source a faster, slimmer, and more efficient JavaScript Library. Ongoing through Q1 2010 November 5, 2009
Auto-generated Documentation We plan to generate our reference docs directly from the code, ensuring that they will always be up to date. Also, it will include a lot more samples in a well-structured interface. Ongoing through Q1 2010 November 5, 2009




Recently Launched


Email (Detail) Developers will be able to ask users to share their primary email addresses (for example, firstname.lastname@domain.com). Launched on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Learn more via the blog post. January 20, 2010
Stream (Detail) Stream.publish, Facebook.streamPublish, and FB.Connect.streamPublish will be the only methods to publish into the stream; many older feed APIs will no longer be supported. January 5, 2010 January 8, 2010
Stream (Detail) Feed forms cannot be popped open without explicit user intent (Policy change). December 20, 2009 January 8, 2010
New Principles, Simplified Policies, Verification Standards (Detail) Announce new Platform Principles (focused on Platform philosophy), simplified policies, and extend verification standards to all applications. Update provided on November 24, 2009 November 24, 2009
Bookmark Button (Detail) We created an "Add Bookmark" button. Launched November 4, 2009 November 4, 2009
Platform Live Status (Detail) We released the Platform Live Status tool, showing updates on platform stability and load. Live! Check it out here