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Facebook has a feature that has a few different names: "usage stories," "playing stories," "discovery stories," and "social discovery."

The idea is simple: when somebody starts using your FB app, FB automatically posts a "usage story" to the ticker, e.g. "Dan used BranchOut" or, if it's a game, "Dan played Candy Crush Saga." (They disappear quickly, but they're great for FB "Sponsored Stories" advertisements; you can also use them to add friendly faces to FB "Mobile App Install" ads.)

There's a setting for "Social Discovery" on the Facebook app "Advanced" settings page, enabled by default, but it's in the "App Restrictions" section; I think that's only how you force it off. Leaving it "On" doesn't actually generate those stories.

My question is: what are the minimum requirements to publish usage stories? Does the app have to have a Canvas URL? Does it require an App Center details page? Can my off-Facebook website publish usage stories? Can native mobile apps publish usage stories? (Can apps that are mobile-only get usage stories?) Can I publish usage stories myself using the Graph API? What are the requirements?

Dan Fabulich
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To drive more traffic to Facebook Platform applications and websites, in addition to the channels above, we enable some distribution automatically as people use your applications. You do not need to do anything extra to enable this distribution. Each automatic channel is designed to help engage users and our algorithms help surface the best content for each user. As Facebook evolves as a product, expect these channels to change and improve.

via FB's Social Channels Doc

Once a person auth’s your app, depending on their privacy settings; [...] a variety of feed stories may be published to share with users the popular apps their friends are using.

via anantguru

I think Facebook keeps changing these things and there is no definite answer. But I'd recommend setting up a dummy account with all privacy settings to default to use you app, that account might then generate some usage stories.

mb21
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