Facebook yesterday for the first time revealed their 6 month product roadmap, and there was plenty of interesting changes that will affect how game developers communicate with their users, generate new installs, and manage their applications.
One of the most important changes is that developers will now be able to ask users for their email addresses. Basically, this gives the developers more direct communication with their users, or, as Facebook puts it on their blog, the point of the move is “to reduce friction and empower application and Facebook Connect developers to manage their relationship with users.”
Other significant changes coming down the pike include:
- Notifications - These will be removed, and instead developers will use stream, Inbox, and Email.
- Requests – Will be moved to Invites and Inbox.
- Invites – Will be moved to either a filter in Inbox or surfaced in the Application and Games Dashboards.
- Inbox – Users will be able to share application content with one another via the Inbox.
- Stream – Stream stories will be rendered slightly differently: 1 image, a few lines of text, and 1 action link (without “formatting”-style characters).
It also sounds like Facebook is going to start applying their platform policies more aggressively. They’re doing away with the Verified Application Program, for example, and instead applying the standards for this program to all applications, rather than just the select few that pass. This is all part of the new set of principles they established for developers to live by.
These are just a few of the changes described at an invite-only Developers Garage hosted yesterday at the Facebook offices. You can watch the entire presentation via ustream. For more analysis, you can also see how VentureBeat, InsideFacebook and AllFacebook covered it.
What all this means to you is that you will have to get more creative in how you grow your app virally and attract more users. Be sure to check out the changes and see how you can utilize new channels like the stream and email to attract new users and build relationships with current ones. This is especially critical because you will no longer be able to rely on notifications and requests, at least not as they currently exist, both of which have been so important to help you acquire new users.
Facebook is constantly changing the platform, and perhaps the best news of the day is that they now plan on releasing regular roadmaps to help developers anticipate these changes and plan for them themselves, rather than just having to react to the changes after they’ve occured. To stay on top of the changes, follow them at the Facebook Developers page.
Filed under: Uncategorized
