Image via Adobe Stock
Several third-party iOS apps crashed on launch, due to a Facebook SDK bug. Here’s what you need to know.
Image via Adobe Stock
Several popular apps — including Spotify, Tinder and Pinterest — were rendered useless on iOS devices on Friday 10 July when Facebook log-in misbehaved. Here’s what you need to know.
Update: The matter has been resolved.
The issue first came to light when Rosie Percy, the senior audience development manager at The Strategist UK, shared a screenshot on Twitter, along with the caption:
“Is anyone else having issues opening…any apps on iPhone?”
One Twitter user, Steve Hampton, suggest shutting down the device for 30 seconds and starting it back up. “Spotify worked for me,” Hampton said. Other apps affected include Pinterest and Tinder.
The cause of the app outages was later confirmed to be Facebook’s software development kit (SDK). James Vincent from The Verge explains:
“The cause of the outages seems to have been Facebook’s software development kit, or SDK, which many apps use to manage user logins. Users don’t have to be using Facebook to log into an app for this to affect their software (they don’t even have to have it installed), and there were no reports of the same apps crashing on Android.”
Co-Founder and CTO at ORDA, Peter Juras said on Twitter: “There’s another Facebook SDK issue that leads to our iOS app to crash on launch again along with major apps like Spotify & Pinterest”.
Juras added that one way to solve the crash was by using a VPN. It was suggested to follow these steps:
Facebook Engineering also confirmed via its developer platform that they were aware of the issue and in the process of investigating the exact cause of the crash. The Facebook team provided an explanation to the Verge:
“Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK. We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologise for any inconvenience”.
A similar issue occurred back in May when a bug in Facebook’s SDK caused third-party apps such as TikTok and Spotify to crash on launch. This is because the SDK enables account login, analytics and ads platform integration.
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