As of April 20, 2023, the Instant Articles API no longer returns data. Instant Articles API endpoints cannot be called on v17 or later and will be removed entirely on August 21, 2023.
Instant Articles Glossary of Terms
Above the Fold — The portion of an article that appears on the first screen of an Instant Article before readers scroll down to view more content.
Aggregate Insights API — An API that gives you total insights for all Instant Articles created by a Page over a timeframe of your choosing. This is the best way currently to get thorough insights data for your Instant Articles.
App ID/App Secret — The identifier and key of your Developers App, which are used to make API calls to Facebook. You need these to connect your Developers App to your WordPress plugin or Drupal module. Find out how to create a Developers App as well as find your App ID and App Secret in our WordPresss Plugin setup guide.
Article Editor — A tool for reviewing and editing the markup of individual Instant Articles from within Facebook. Access the editor by clicking ‘Links’ under ‘Published’ or ‘Pre-Published’ in the left-hand column of Creator Studio on your Facebook Page and then selecting Instant Article as Post Type.
Article Insights API — An API that allows you to query article-level metrics for Instant Articles and individual media elements within individual articles (e.g. total views for a specific video).
Article Review — Every new publisher must be approved by Facebook through a one-time review before they can publish Instant Articles. Once you have 10 or more Instant Articles, you can submit for review through Monetization under Creator Studio on your Facebook Page. A reviewer from the Instant Articles team checks a sample of your articles to make sure the articles follow all the program policies and design guidelines. Your reviewer will respond within 2 business days, either approving the Page to begin publishing or providing feedback for updates.
Audience Network — Facebook’s mobile advertising system, with access to Facebook advertisers. Publishers can use Audience Network in their Instant Articles and receive industry standard CPMs. Audience Network can be paired with direct-sold advertisements or used alone.
Body — Instant Articles have two code blocks in their HTML markup, the <head> and <body>. The <body> contains the content, including text, media, embeds and ads, as well as the <header> and <footer>.
Branded Content — Create and publish articles featuring a third-party sponsor, brand or product. Branded Content is a third option for monetization in addition to direct-sold ads and Audience Network. Learn how to differentiate branded content from editorial by using our guide.
Bug Tool — A forum where publishers can search for and submit bugs, as well as receive direct help from Facebook engineers. Use this tool for any troubleshooting questions that aren’t answered in the FAQ or Troubleshooting sections of the documentation.
Canonical URL — The URL listed within the <head> of an individual Instant Article. The URL should be the same as the mobile web version of the article. Facebook uses the canonical URL to locate the original article and convert it to the instant format.
Claiming Your URL — See “Connecting Your Site.”
Connecting Your Site— When you register your publication’s URL with Facebook in order to verify that you own the URL and ensure that no one else can claim it. Publishers can register root domains, subdomains and individual paths within a domain.
Creator Studio — Your Facebook Page’s command center for publishing content in a whole variety of formats, designated by navigation menu on the left-hand side of your Page. Once you’ve signed up for Instant Articles you’ll have access to the entire Instant Articles section under Monetization and Published or Pre-Published sections.
Developer Documentation — The users guide for Instant Articles. Located in the documentation section of Facebook’s Developer Site, a.k.a. the “Dev Site.” The documentation includes general guides to setting up and using Instant Articles as well as detailed technical references and code samples.
Developers App — An app you’ll need to create in order to connect your WordPress plugin or Drupal Module to Facebook. It’s a simple process and does not require any technical know-how. Follow these steps to create your App and get the App ID and App Secret you’ll need for the plugin.
Developers Blog — “Instant Articles News” covers new features releases, product updates, best practices, tips and tricks and stories about how publishers around the world are building their businesses with Instant Articles. Subscribe here.
Direct-Sold Ads— Ads that publishers sell themselves. Publishers can display these ads in Instant Articles and keep 100% of the revenue, as they would on the mobile web.
First Screen — See “Above the Fold.”
Footer — A section at the bottom of the article for information such as author bios, credits, corrections and the Related Articles unit. In HTML markup, the <footer> belongs inside the <body> tags.
Guidelines — A list of design and formatting guidelines to help publishers avoid common mistakes and pass review.
Head — The code block of the HTML document of an Instant Article that includes such required information such as the canonical URL and the specific style that should be applied to the content.
Header — The top section of an Instant Article that serves as an abbreviated article cover once readers open the article. In HTML markup, the <header> goes inside the article <body> and can include a title, subtitle, kicker, author credit and header media. The header media can be an image, video, GIF or slideshow; it appears at the top of the article above the title.
IA — Abbreviation for Instant Articles.
Iframe — Short for inline frame. It is a piece of code used to embed another document within the HTML structure. An <iframe> tag is used most often for social media embeds, interactive graphics and third-party video players. Learn more about embeds.
Importing Articles — After a story has been published on the web, it can be imported into Facebook and converted to the Instant Article format. Publishers can import their articles to Facebook from their content management system (CMS) using Facebook’s API, a dedicated RSS feed or a third-party tool such as the WordPress Plugin.
Instant Article — An Instant Article is an HTML document that loads very quickly in Facebook. While a mobile article takes about seven seconds to load, an Instant Article loads within one second.
Instant Articles API — Facebook’s Graph API supports Instant Articles, enabling publishers to import their articles to Facebook and update and delete them instantaneously from within their CMS.
Instant Articles Partners Program — A collection of third-party publishing tools and analytics providers, such as WordPress, Drupal and comScore, who have partnered with Facebook to integrate their services into Instant Articles.
Library — Your Instant Articles library includes both your Production Articles and Development Articles. It is a collection of all Instant Articles that are live, in draft or in development.
Live — After you pass article review, Facebook enables your articles to reproduce as Instant Articles. This is referred to as going live because, prior to passing review, publishers’ Instant Articles libraries remain in development mode, where they may be viewed by internal team members only. This makes it easy to experiment with drafts of articles that will never be seen by your mobile audience.
Feed Preview — The preview image and text for an Instant Article that appears in a Feed post when a reader or publisher shares the article URL.
Pages Manager— A Facebook app that allows you to preview your Instant Articles on mobile phones. Download it for your iPhone or Android device.
Policies — Facebook has a set of policies for content, article experience, ads experience and ad sales/serving for Instant Articles. These policies must be followed by publishers at all times.
Pre-Published Articles — A section of Creator Studio that shows under Links the DRAFT version of your production Instant Articles and the RSS feed used for testing and experimentation. ‘Draft’ status indicates that they will appear for readers as normal mobile web links until they are made live. Articles in the development feed are not live Instant Articles.
Programmatic Ads — Advertising purchased at scale through technological channels. Audience Network uses programmatic ads to optimize advertisers’ media placements.
Published Articles — A section of Creator Studio that shows under Links a list of your articles successfully imported as Instant Articles. The ‘Live’ status means they are ready to be shared as Instant Articles.
Publishing — See "Importing Articles."
Related Articles — An in-article unit that allows publishers to include previews and links to other relevant articles from their publication. The modular unit can be placed in-line at your discretion, and it appears automatically as the final element in the footer section of articles. (Note that while we refer to it as the “Related Articles” unit, the header reads “More From” by default when it appears in the footer and can be edited on a case-by-case basis for in-line versions.)
RSS Feed — A dedicated RSS feed that Facebook uses to import a publisher’s Instant Articles. It requires configuring your CMS to generate a feed with your mobile web articles converted to the Instant Articles format.
Style — Use the style editor (see below) to create one or more styles for your Instant Articles. Each style can be customized with different logos, fonts and colors. Publishers often create multiple styles to differentiate branded content or multiple verticals.
Style Editor — A tool for designers and art directors to create and customize Instant Articles styles. You can find the style editor by clicking ‘Links’ under ‘Published’ or ‘Pre-Published’ in the left-hand column of Creator Studio on your Facebook Page,then click the gear icon on the right and scroll down to the Styles section.
WordPress Plugin — A plugin that lets WordPress users create Instant Articles from within their WordPress dashboard. The plugin converts WordPress article markups into parallel Instant Articles markups. Instant Articles for WP is the easiest way to get set up with Instant Articles and is one of several third-party publishing tools.