Facebook Simplifying the Integration Process for Developers
Developers don’t want to wade through a sea of complex documentation, systems, and downloads in order to add greater social functionality to their applications. Adding Facebook or Twitter support to both established and startup apps should be quick and easy, not an additional headache.
Facebook understands the increasing desire for streamlined development tools, and that’s exactly why it’s upgrading its system for integrating Facebook within apps. The social media giant is simplifying the process by providing setup guides for iOS, Android, Websites, and Canvas, giving step-by-step tutorials on how to make use of Facebook’s advertisement and login functionality.
The process wasn’t a walk in the park before this update. Previously, you’d have to find and download the newest software development kit, create a Facebook App ID, enable the platform you were working with, and then copy and paste specific information within the development environment. This was all being done as you were trying to read Facebook’s often cumbersome documentation.
Now everything being displayed is clearly relevant to your specific app, and the steps to implementation have been reduced. SDK downloads are included inline, in addition to necessary code that you can easily copy and paste into your app. Instead of driving some developers away with frustrating hurdles, Facebook is making the prospect of partnering up both appealing and straightforward.
Creating better development tools isn’t some novel idea spawned by Facebook, though. This is a trend that we’re seeing across the industry, and that’s evident with Apple and its new Swift coding language. Released this year, Swift is a faster, smarter way to build apps with cleaner, more reliable code for the company’s suite of products.
And unlike most young languages, Swift is seeing a high rate of adoption. It often takes years for innovative coding patterns to break out, but Apple’s significant reach and influence—along with the massive improvements Swift makes over Objective-C—have helped this new release gain significant ground in a short span of time.
Creating faster development tools isn’t the only goal. What Apple, Facebook, and Google are really shooting for are languages and resources that strike a balance between power and simplicity, giving its audience the best of both worlds. A tool isn’t all that useful if it’s fast yet inefficient, and no one will adopt a language if it’s potent but overly dense.
Simplicity is good, but efficiency is better. Facebook is following the recent development trend, and while it might not always make sense to add a social option to your application, the industry leader is making the integration experience both easy and effective.
