Question

Whenever a permission error occurs on facebook, developers are forced to 1. identify that this is actually happening, 2. ask the user to re-login.

This is a terrible user experience, and I’m surprised that Facebook even allows it to exist.

Is there any way to easily add a permission to a session? If not, are there any ways to make this easier?

Answer 1

So let’s put it this way:

1. I authorized your app with only basic access (no permissions, perms or scope).
2. You automatically added the email permission without my permission
   1. I started receiving emails (spamming?) from you which is the worst scenario OR
   2. You have simply gained access to my email!

Facebook respects user privacy (actually it’s a primary goal) and while they are trying to provide developers with the best technologies, methods and APIs to maintain the best experience there are things they can’t avoid.

Each action your application want to make to the user OR on his behalf must be approved by the user and it should be clearly stated when the user approves it.

I’ve chosen the email permission for a purpose here, because the user may choose NOT to share his personal email with you directly (in which case Facebook will give you a proxied email). This is how far Facebook is thinking and trying to keep the user trust on them (before you!)

Just a small note, handling (any) API provider errors and adopting it’s behavior is part of your job. And trust me, Facebook users have been installing millions of apps for years now and they are used to this behavior.

So try making your application as engaging as possible, make use of the Graph API, Social Plugins and Channels. And you’ll perform just fine.