After pushing the concept of "frictionless sharing" for several years now, Facebook is now urging developers to cool it with the auto-sharing of Web activity on the social network.
"In general, we've found that people engage more with stories that are shared explicitly rather than implicitly, and often feel surprised or confused by stories that are shared implicitly or automatically," Facebook's Peter Yang wrote in a blog post.
In the coming months, Yang said Facebook will continue to prioritize content that users have specifically selected to share with their Facebook friends rather than "frictionless" auto shares. As a result, Facebook is encouraging developers to make activity sharing an opt-in experience rather than automatic.
Specifically, Yang said developers should consider several options for more personal and less intrusive sharing: mark stories as explicit, so that users have to actively select to send something to their Facebook feed; opt for Message Dialog sharing, which displays shared activity in a conversation thread on Messenger; use "Send to Mobile," which will send a notification to the Facebook mobile app if someone logs in on your desktop site, asking them to download the mobile version of the app; and add the new mobile "Like" button.
The concept of frictionless auto-sharing dates back to Facebook's f8 conference in 2011, when the social network teamed up with big-name Web services like Netflix and Spotify, to launch apps on Facebook. When users logged into those services with their Facebook ID, however, activity on those sites would be automatically shared on Facebook ("Chloe just listened to Adele on Spotify" or "Chloe is watching House of Cards on Netflix").
It's an interesting concept and is intended to keep your friends up to date with your interests and perhaps provide them with some suggestions on what to listen to or watch next, but a lot of Facebook users didn't really want to share everything they did on their news feed. What if you wanted to listen to Justin Bieber or watch Pretty Little Liars without everyone in your social circle knowing about it?
Frictionless sharing can be shut off, but it can be confusing, depending on the service. Facebook has addressed the issue over the years, acknowledging that it's not everyone's favorite thing, but it seems that it has finally taken the step of asking developers to also tone down the over-sharing.