Facebook users don't give a heck about apps notifications anymore | Hacker News Reader

Facebook users don't give a heck about apps notifications anymore

piotrzaniewicz.posterous.com

We stopped caring about notifications because spammy Facebook "games" poisoned the well, and now you want to do this to requests?

This post seems to focus on requests for games that are played on the Facebook website, but what about mobile apps? I am actually in the process of integrating requests into my Android app and other than a bug I ran into, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the way the request works. Since my app is only on Android, the notifications only appear on Android devices. If you invite people who are not using an Android device, they will never see the notification. If the user doesn't have the app installed, the notification will bring them to Google Play, otherwise, it will launch them into the app. This feels a lot less spammy overall and it at least feels as though it will be moderately effective. Anyone have any data on this?

Yes, I work on FB apps that span multiple types of devices. You are correct in that only android users will see the request. I don't see it working all that well for you though, because the requestor won't know which friend uses android. So the requestor might need to send twenty requests to hit one friend with Android.

Obviously, it is better to have an app that spans all the devices. That way Android users can request to iPhone, who can request to mobile web, who can request to canvas. Personally I think it is so important to be present on all of the devices that it is better to have slimmed down apps everywhere than one good app somewhere.

I started blocking all requests from people who sent me game requests. I've then decided I don't need apps at all and disabled them in their entirety.

If you want me to use an app on FB, I'm not part of your target market. I just got fed up with the "Lets play jewelquest" spam.

I have a feeling that these apps are going to be a primary constituent of FB's MySpace moment that I think is going to come eventually.

tl;dr

Users do not accept invites to new apps anymore. Notifications can be used to increase the retention (with give-a-life, send-a-life feature).

This is false - there exists a class of apps where all they do is have a well tuned requests funnel (seriously, that's all the app is), and they are alive and well. See e.g. the MyCalendar franchise:

http://appdata.com/apps/facebook/33699672217-birthdays http://appdata.com/apps/facebook/202577393268-micalendario-c...

I'm unclear on what their API would allow, but I think that there is a huge opportunity to present the important stuff on Facebook to users in a cleaner, more elegant way...we've seen so many attempts at cleaning up the inbox; I'd be interested to see someone focus on the News Feed.

100% bad UX, which I believe to be intentional. Un-disablable garbage that only benefits the spammer. In fact, the chief evolutionary contribution of Facebook to the world may only ever be new forms of spam.

Un-disablable? Un-true:

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/app_notifications/

You can turn off notifications from any app very easily.

but you have to turn them off for each app you can't just disable them as a whole.

Well, you can opt out of all third-party apps, if you want to.

Notifications are a core part of Facebook. It's like complaining that Twitter doesn't have an option to stop people retweeting you.

Notifications are a core part of Facebook but the number of users that want game notifications is pretty small as the linked article described (5% acceptance rate two years ago and going down from that). The explicit gamification in this article is pretty disgusting.

Opting out of third-party apps does not affect notifications TMK. At least I still get them, though I don't know if there would be more if I had apps enabled.

https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy --> Apps, Games and Websites --> Click "Turn off", it is purposely hidden as normal text even though it is the blue hyperlink color it blends in quite well.

If facebook had a (physical)complaints box it would be just out of arms reach above a large rose bush.

Thanks. I hadn't seen that option yet. It is exactly what I want.

That "Turn off" link has returned an error for at least a year.

I made my gf do it two days ago and it worked.

Then nobody at FB is checking the error log, if there is one.

except doing so means that you can't use any third party apps for facebook yourself, such as tweetdeck, other integrating social networks, etc.

If they use oauth then I have my google account. Otherwise I'm not their target audience.

The only things that have required me to use FB app forced login is marketing from "free stuffz" vendors.

So the UX idea is that I have to go to the developer site to find out that request notifications (and apparently only request notifications) have a little X (partially covered by scroll bar and possible tooltip) that activates the blocking interface? Do people go to college to learn how to design UIs this way?

I can hardly be bothered to check my FB anymore. No more vanity browsing for me.

Too bad they don't give a damn about privacy either.

Ooo, ouch! Facebookers get mad?

fb suxs

Face what?

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