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by b212 2988 days ago
But why? Why would anyone set up an API access to PRIVATE messages. That's crazy :o
5 comments
spike021 2988 days ago
On one hand it's actually a fairly reasonable API. Imagine using third-party AIM clients a decade or more ago. Same kind of thing.
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ex3ndr 2988 days ago
They never provided ability to send messages. This is a useless thing for AIM clients.
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simcop2387 2988 days ago
You used to be able to connect to facebook messenger via XMPP. Combined with this permission, it would have let you retrieve historical messages and add persistence among alternative clients.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9266769

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spike021 2987 days ago
Actually they did. I used the old OSX iChat to message with friends on FB.

Other third party applications had that ability as well.

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RobLach 2988 days ago
Facebook's agenda at that point was get as many developers onto their platform by enticing them with all this access to "data people gave away".
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liquidise 2988 days ago
If Adium, Pigeon, or another collective chat application needed that permission at the time to combine my facebook and AIM lists into a single application, i would have certainly understood it.
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clusmore 2988 days ago
In late 2013 I used (I think) the Graph API to pull my own private chat messages so I could see what messages I sent and received on a particular day, to remind myself when certain events happened. I can't think of many good reasons for this API to exist to third parties, but it was pretty handy for my own data.
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thinkingemote 2988 days ago
A third party messaging client would need it
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