Facebook iOS SDK vs Social framework

Question

I want to write app that is heavily integrated with Facebook. I'm not sure what shoud I use - sdk provided by Facebook or new Social Framework provided by Apple. Do you know some pros and cons of them?

[EDIT] I ended using Social Framework provided by Apple, because it's much easier to integrate, It will be develop in future, and I have access to device owner Facebook account, so user don't have to log in to Facebook when using my app. I want to do some custom stuff, so I get oauth token from ACAccountCredential and then I make requests with AFNetworing to Facebook's Graph API.

Bioscope

Have you found a way to post to a friends wall using the iOS Social Framework? This seems to be an unnecessarily difficult task to achieve with just the social framework. – Hulett

Answer 1

The Social Framework is designed for simple, site-neutral data manipulation. Examples might include getting the user's 'activity feed' (as described by the docs) or posting a new status or photo. It currently works with Twitter, Facebook and Weibo however, other than lack of features, the current main disadvantage is that it is limited to iOS 6, which won't be as much of a problem in the future.

On the other hand Facebook does have an iOS SDK that makes it reasonably easy to integrate Facebook into your app, and it is much more powerful than the Social Framework. Another benefit is that support goes back to iOS 4.3.

I'd recommend using the Facebook iOS SDK over writing your own custom one and using OAuth because Facebook has already done the work for you.

Linebreeding

thumb up for facebook sdk – Willman

Why it's much more powerful than social framework? What can you do with facebook sdk you can't do with social framework? Can you use both? – Undry

Besides legacy iOS compatibility the Social Framework is every bit as powerful as the Facebook SDK, if not more so if you are planning on using other services, such as Twitter. I think you're only familiar with/considering the built-in share composers such as SLComposeViewController. Using SLRequest calls you can effectively use the Social Framework to use any Graph API call. – Quarles

Answer 2

I've struggled with this decision for a long time and came to this conclusion. If your app doesn't care for iOS 5 and older phones, then the iOS Social framework is the way to go, as it allows the user to share with any of the popular social outlets (Facebook, Twitter, email, Weibo, SMS...) just like one can do in mobile safari. According to Apple, 89% of the iDevices are already on iOS 7. The percentage will be higher if you include iOS 6.

Ruler