Back to News for Developers

Connect Businesses and People F8 April 18

April 19, 2017ByOlga Kuznetsova

We believe the success of a business lies in establishing solid connections with people. Today at F8, we released Facebook Login and Account Kit product enhancements to help you better connect with people and engage them across different surfaces. We also introduced new ways to retain and recover customer accounts to maintain those relationships.

Establish connections

Over the last year, we expanded Facebook Login to reach more people by supporting additional surfaces - Facebook Lite, Chrome Custom tabs and TV. We also introduced Instant Verification for Account Kit phone number login to remove friction from registration and to reduce reliance on SMS in areas where this is less reliable.

Voice Call Verification
We are adding voice call phone number verification to Account Kit in 19 locales for people who don't receive their confirmation code via SMS to help them get through the flow easier and faster.

Basic Web Support
If you are building an experience for parts of the world where browsers without Javascript support are popular, Account Kit now offers a Basic Web SDK. We see major benefit for those using Free Basics, and partners have already implemented this with success.

Account Kit UI Customization
We've created an easier way to customize the UI for you to create a look and feel aligned with your brand. You can start by simply choosing a skin and tint information, supplying a primary color, and adding an optional background image. Check out the different design treatment of a sample app using the new skins which can be found in the latest SDKs for iOS, Android and Web.

Improved Facebook Login Buttons
We now offer personalized buttons with customizable widths on web that read: “Continue as [name]”. This is available today on our JS SDK which will render the person's profile picture and name if they are logged into Facebook, and default to “Continue with Facebook” if they are not. Pinterest has seen a 37% lift in Facebook sign-ups since implementing the new button on their desktop experience.

We also modernized the Login buttons in native and JS SDKs with rounded corners, a color update, and the option to select “Continue with Facebook” or “Login with Facebook”. You can use the new Login buttons by simply upgrading your native SDK or JS SDK. Be sure to check that the size of the button is appropriate for your UI and changing the size specification in your code if you're using the JS SDK.

Maintain connections

We understand that maintaining a consistent connection with your customer is important for growing your relationship, so we are offering new solutions to help.

More Insights
We added insights that will help you better understand how people are moving through your Account Kit sign-in flow within the Facebook Analytics dashboard.

Connecting with People Across Apps and Bots on Messenger
You can now recognize a Facebook-connected customer from your app to your bot on Messenger to create better customer experiences across the two channels. The details can be found in our developer documentation.

This will help people have more delightful experiences like a movie-going night where everything from watching a trailer, buying tickets, to getting into the theatre can all be handled on your phone.

Express Login
When people change devices or download their apps again, they need to go through the sign-in process and often forget how they previously logged in. With this new Facebook Login feature for Android apps, you can check if the person signing in had previously done so using Facebook. If so, they are shown an in-app reminder to bypass going through the full sign-in flow. This feature is currently in closed beta and we'll keep you posted when we roll it out more broadly.

Delegated Account Recovery
Another way in which you may lose contact with a customer is when they forget their password. Delegated Account Recovery enables you to offer your customers the option to use their Facebook account as a way to verify who they are when they forget their password, lose their two-factor codes, or don't want to answer security questions based on personal information. You can read more about how this open protocol works in our Protect the Graph blog.

We can't wait to see how you leverage these solutions to easily establish connections and grow relationships with your customers.