Spotify, Tinder, Other Apps Suffer Outages Due to Facebook Glitch--2nd Update
July 10 2020 - 2:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Parmy Olson and Sarah E. Needleman
A number of popular apps such as Spotify and Tinder experienced
outages for several hours on Friday because of what Facebook Inc.
said was a bug in its software for iPhone users.
The issue relates to Facebook's software development kit, or
SDK, which many developers embed in their apps to allow people to
log into apps through their Facebook accounts.
"Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS
apps using the Facebook SDK," Facebook said on its developer
website. "We identified the issue quickly and resolved. We
apologize for any inconvenience."
Complaints from app users about the problem appeared to begin
surfacing on Twitter around 3 a.m. Eastern time, suggesting the
outage lasted for several hours. A Facebook spokesman said the
company is working to determine exactly when the outages began.
The bug didn't affect users of Android phones or web users of
those applications.
On social media, users of other apps including Pinterest also
complained of their services crashing as soon as they opened them
on their iPhones via Facebook.
This isn't the first time third-party apps have experienced
technical issues because of Facebook. In May, a number of
high-profile apps including Spotify, TikTok and Pinterest crashed
upon opening. The Facebook spokesman said Friday's problem was
related to an update with its SDK for apps on Apple Inc.'s
mobile-operating system, but the company doesn't yet know if the
exact cause.
"We're aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!
We'll keep you posted," Spotify's support team tweeted Friday
morning after the music app suddenly stopped working. A few hours
later, the team tweeted again saying: "Everything's now back in
tune! If you still need help, send us a tweet."
App makers rely on developer kits to integrate their apps with
others, enabling people, for example, to log in with their
Facebook, Google mail or other credentials. Facebook's kit is among
the most widely used by app developers for this purpose.
Facebook's SDK helps apps with user on-boarding and retention,
said Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia, an
app-analytics firm. People using an app for the first time don't
need to come up with a new username or password if they sign up
with their Facebook credentials, he said, and logging back into an
app is just as quick.
App makers see risks, such as outages, in using Facebook's SDK
as worth taking, Mr. Blacker said. Outages are infrequent and when
they happen typically many app makers are affected, he said.
"You're sinking and rising along with your competitors," he said.
"You don't look any worse than" they do.
Software-development kits for apps have presented other problems
for users. A 2019 investigation by The Wall Street Journal found
that people's personal information was sometimes shared with
Facebook even if the apps on their phones didn't use the
social-media giant's software kit.
Those apps sent data without any prominent or specific
disclosure, a finding that alarmed some privacy experts who
reviewed the Journal's testing.
At the time, Facebook said some of the data sharing uncovered by
the report appeared to violate its business terms. The company also
said it told apps flagged by the Journal to stop sending
information its users might regard as sensitive and that it would
take additional action if the apps didn't comply.
The Facebook spokesman didn't have additional comment about the
issue Friday.
Write to Parmy Olson at parmy.olson@wsj.com and Sarah E.
Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 10, 2020 13:55 ET (17:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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