App Review - Tutorial
Important Things to Know
We will test your app so be sure that we can access it. We will follow your screen recordings when testing your app, so make sure they demonstrate actions that require the permissions and features you are requesting. Any requested permission or feature missing a screen recording will not be approved.
Before You Start
Before you begin the App Review submission process, make sure to complete each of the steps outlined below. This will improve the quality of your submission and reduce the chances of it being rejected.
General
Make sure we can access your app or website. Your app must be publicly available or you must provide instructions on how to access it.
Upload a 1024x1024 compliant app icon image to Settings > Basic > App Icon.
Make at least 1 successful API call using each permission for which you are requesting advanced access. Calls must be made within 30 days of submitting for App Review and can be made using your app or the Graph API Explorer tool.
Read our Platform Terms and Developer Policies to ensure your app adheres to our terms and policies.
Read the Allowed Usage section in the reference for each permission and feature that you will be requesting in your submission. If your app does not satisfy the allowed usage for a permission or feature, your app will not be approved for that permission or feature.
Screen Recordings
To ensure that your screen recording is accessible to all our reviewers, please follow these guidelines:- Use English as the app UI language – If possible, please set the app UI language to English before recording the screen recording. This will make it easier for the review team to understand the content of your app.
- Provide captions and tool-tips – If your app is not available in English, or if there are any parts of the app that are not self-explanatory, please provide captions and tool-tips to explain what is happening on screen. This will help the review team understand what you are showcasing and how the app works.
- Explain the meaning of buttons and other UI elements – Please take the time to explain the meaning of any buttons or other UI elements that are not immediately obvious. This will help the review team understand how to use your app and what each button does.
Read our screen recordings guide. Make sure to record in high-resolution, 1080 or better, and that your screen recordings show an app user granting your app each permission your app requires, and that it shows how your app uses each granted permission and feature that you will be requesting in your submission.
Make sure your app's name and icon meet our trademark and logo requirements.
Read our FAQs regarding policy violations and the App Review process.
Read our Common Mistakes guide to avoid common mistakes found in first-time submissions.
If you have access to dedicated screen recording software such as Camtasia or Snagit, we recommend that you use it. Most dedicated screen recording software offer free trial versions and provide tools so you can polish your screen recording.
If you don't have access to dedicated screen recording software, you can easily use free alternatives, such as Quicktime or OBS. These apps don't offer any way for you to annotate, zoom, or edit your recorded video, but you can easily add the recorded video to a free video editor such as iMovie and perform those actions there.
Record only what we need to see. Make your app full screen or just record the window itself.
Decrease your monitor's resolution to a width of 1440 or less.
When possible, use your mouse to interact with your app instead of your keyboard. If we can't see what you're doing, we can't test it!
Increase your mouse's cursor size. Most dedicated screen recording software will allow you to do this, even after you have recorded. Alternatively, you can increase your cursor's size in your computer's settings.
Omit audio; our reviewers will not listen to it.
We will use your recordings as guides when testing your app to verify that it actually uses all of the permissions and features you are requesting. Recordings do not need to explain why your app needs each of them, the App Review submission form will ask for this information.
Step 1: Select Permissions and Features
Go to the Use Cases tab on the left hand navigation to add and customize available use cases on your app. From there, you will be able to pick from permissions and other features.
Request each of the permissions and features that your app needs for each use case by clicking the “add” button. Only request the permissions and features that your app needs. After you add a permission or feature, its status will change to “ready for testing.”
Once you’ve completed adding all the permissions and features that your app needs, expand the navigation bar on the left hand side and click into “App Review.” This will take you to the app review submission page, where all your permissions and features that you selected previously will be prepopulated.
Step 2: Completing App Review
Step 2.1: Complete business verification
You may be prompted to complete business verification if you have not done so already. Depending on the status of your business, you may be asked to start verification, provide more information, or complete the process.
If your business verification status has already been approved, you will be prompted to complete app settings as the first step.
Step 2.2: Complete app settings
The window that appears after starting app settings displays required settings that can be found in the Settings > Basic tab, so these may already be complete. If they are, just confirm that everything is correct or make adjustments as needed. If any are incomplete, set them here.
App Icon: Make sure your App Icon does not include any of our trademarks or logos.
Privacy Policy URL: This is the URL that we present to app users in any of Meta's authentication solution interfaces so they can decide whether or not to grant your app any permissions it is requesting.
App Purpose: Set this to yourself or your own business if your app is only available to people who have a role on your app, or a role in a Business that has claimed your app. Otherwise set it to Clients.
App Category: Make sure to select a category that accurately describes your app.
Primary Contact: Make sure you have access to the email account displayed here. Email notifications pertaining to your App Review submission will be sent to this address.
Step 2.3: Complete allowed usage
During the allowed usage section, you will be asked to certify that your app is using all advanced access permissions, features, and APIs within their allowed usage. As such, you will be asked to provide the reasons why you are requesting a specific permission. Any features that are not needed should be removed during this step.
Step 2.4: Complete data handling
These questions are designed to validate that personal data received from Meta will be processed and transferred securely and in compliance with Meta’s Platform Terms and Developer Policies. This is part of Meta’s continued commitment to protecting people’s privacy and personal data—a responsibility that we share with all developers in our ecosystem.
Please note that "Platform Data" means any information, data or other content that you obtain from us, through Platform or through your app, whether directly or indirectly and whether before, on or after the date you agree to these terms, including data anonymised, aggregated or derived from such data. Platform Data includes all access tokens, the app secret, Meta user IDs, email addresses, profile pictures and usernames. Platform Data may include a subset of personal data or personal information that relates to an identified or identifiable person.
Step 2.5: Complete data protection
The questions in data protection section are designed to determine whether developers are complying with our Platform Terms as it relates to the use, sharing and protection of Platform Data. Apps that do not have to complete data protection will not see the data protection section in their overview page or in the progress bar.
The data protection section is split into four categories: app purpose, data sharing, data deletion, and data security.
The app purpose section is focused primarily on your app’s use of data and its purpose. Data sharing is focused on sharing data, including with service providers or sub-service providers. Data deletion dives deeper into when and how Platform Data is deleted from your systems. And lastly, data security will ask questions about how data is stored and protected.
Step 2.6: Complete reviewer instructions
To keep the Meta platform and community safe, and in accordance with our Platform Terms, we periodically review apps for compliance with data use and other policies by evaluating user experience and how your app is using its current permissions, features, and products. In the last section, you will be asked to provide information to ensure that our reviewers can access the app and review all of its functionality.
The information provided should help our reviewers access your app, verify user experience, and test how your app uses the data received from Meta. When providing instructions, please verify that your app is currently functioning as expected and that your privacy policy is publicly accessible. If codes or gift cards are required to test your app, please make sure to provide ones that are currently valid.
We will also ask you to provide a valid privacy policy URL. If the URL is valid, you will be taken to the next section to provide details for how to find and access the app. There are different sections for a website and for mobile apps. Please provide instructions for both if applicable.
Step 3: Submitting app review
Once you’ve completed every section of the assessment, you will be taken back to the overview page where you can optionally review each section. If you are certain that you have completed every section and are ready to submit, you can do so by clicking the ‘Submit’ button at the bottom of the page. You will be asked to certify that the answers you have given are true and that you are following Meta’s Platform Terms and Policies.
If your app has modes, you should only switch it to Live mode after you have completed App Review. Apps in Live mode can only request approved permissions from app users, and only approved features will be active for app users. This restriction applies to everyone, even users who have a role on the app itself, so switching to Live mode prematurely may make your app unusable for users who have a role on your app. In addition, data generated while in Development mode such as test posts will become visible to all app users once you switch.
Common Mistakes
Before you submit your app, take a moment to review some of the most common mistakes that can lead to requests for additional information or rejection.
Your app is inaccessible
We test all submitted apps to verify that they comply with our terms and policies and that they use the requested permissions and features in compliance with their allowed usages.
If we can't access your app for any reason, your entire submission will be rejected, so make sure your app is working and is publicly accessible before submitting.
A screen recording of a permission or feature is missing
Your submission must include screen recordings that demonstrate an app user using functionality that requires each of the permissions and features in your submission. If your submission does not include a screen recording that demonstrate a specific permission or feature being used, your app will not be approved for that permission or feature.
You are still developing your app
Only submit for review when you have completed app development and your app is ready to be used by end users. If your app appears incomplete or that you are still making changes to it, your submission will be rejected.
You are requesting a permission or feature you might need later
Only request permissions and features that your app currently needs. If you plan on releasing a new version of your app later that will require new permissions and features, do not include them in your current submission. Instead, request them in a new submission after you have completed development of the new version of your app.
Facebook Login is not working or can't be located
If your app users can log into your app using Facebook Login, we will attempt to locate Facebook Login and log into your app. If we are unable to locate Facebook Login, or are unable to log into your app with Facebook Login, your entire submission will be rejected.
You used a fake account
Fake accounts violate our terms and policies, so if you created a fake Facebook account and included its login details in your submission, your entire submission will be rejected.