Any workaround to avoid "unsupported browser ..." when trying to use FB.ui on chrome on IOS

Question

I am getting an "unsupported browser: chrome for ios doesn't support this feature. Please use safari and try again" when trying to open a share dialog by using the FB.ui API on an iphone.

I guess this question is related Facebook OAuth "Unsupported" in Chrome on iOS, but I am interested in sharing and not authentication by itself (ie I don't care if a user will login and I will not know about it).

Answer 1

I know this is an old question but if anyone else faces this kind of problem, (I mean some googling got me here for a reason).

The facebook share dialog doesn't need a login to share.

https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/reference/share-dialog

Usually you use the js sdk, like so:

FB.ui({
  method: 'share',
  href: 'https://developers.facebook.com/docs/',
}, function(response){});

Unfortunally this will not work in Chrome on iOs, but luckily there is a workaround for this (If you are using php);

$isIosChrome = (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'CriOS') !== false) ? true : false;
if ($isIosChrome == true) {
    $iosChromeShareLink = 'https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share
        ?app_id='.$settings['facebook']['appId'].'
        &display=popup
        &href='.urlencode($THE_SITE_U_WANT_TO_SHARE).'
        &redirect_uri='.urlencode($settings['facebook']['redirectUrl']);
}

So basically, you need to detect if the user uses Chrome on iOs and then replace your trigger element for the the FB.ui function with the "FB sharer"-link. Because you dont want to use the sharer all the time, only when the js sdk is not working.

And because every site on internet are treated as OG-objects by facebook you just need to make sure your site contains the correct OG-tags.

But if your facebook app(or site) require login for other purposes and you face the "unsupported browser" message by chrome, you could login your users thru the php redirect login (This require you to use the php sdk).

use Facebook\FacebookSession;
use Facebook\FacebookRedirectLoginHelper;
use Facebook\FacebookRequest;
use Facebook\GraphUser;
use Facebook\FacebookRequestException;

/**
*FIXES CHROME ON IOS BUG
*
*
*/
$isIosChrome = (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'CriOS') !== false) ? true : false;
if ($isIosChrome == true) {

    FacebookSession::setDefaultApplication(
        $settings['facebook']['appId'],
        $settings['facebook']['secret']
        );
    $helper = new FacebookRedirectLoginHelper($settings['facebook']['redirectUrl']);
      $session = $helper->getSessionFromRedirect();
    if ($session) {
      //var_dump($session);
        $user_profile = (new FacebookRequest(
          $session, 'GET', '/me'
        ))->execute()->getGraphObject(GraphUser::className());
        $uid=$user_profile->getID;
        echo $uid;
    }
    else{
      $loginUrl = $helper->getLoginUrl();
      header("location:".$loginUrl);
      exit;
    }
}