On October 24, 2020, Facebook and Instagram will stop supporting older versions of oEmbed. This change will cause unauthenticated oEmbed web links on your website to break, which means content between your site and these two applications will not display properly on your site.
What you can do
You have three plugin options to help remedy the issue: JetPack, Smash Balloon or oEmbed. Read about these three options and which one is best for you in our quick guide. You’ll also find instructions on how to use each one and ensure you have no issues come October 24.
While our guide is pretty comprehensive, should you need to talk to one of our support specialists, please chat with them or call (905) 882-7092.
WordPress: Facebook API Change – oEmbed
On October 24, 2020, an API update will cause broken links for Facebook and Instagram feeds across the web. To fix this and still use oEmbed, users must create a developer account and generate an app ID.
What is oEmbed?
For over ten years, Facebook oEmbed has made it simple for users to share media on websites and social networks without touching any code. Facebook security updates will now require users to get developer app credentials before embedding their content.
What is the Impact of the API Change?
While these changes don’t necessarily impact your website, many plugins depend on oEmbed, which will affect unauthenticated content embedded from Facebook/Instagram to break.
How Do I Fix This?
If you notice that the embedded content has broken after the API change, you can install one of the three plugins listed below in the Recommended Plugins section. These plugins help restore Facebook and Instagram embeds either by providing a Facebook developer account and app id, or helping users generate their own.
Please note that the oEmbed Plus plugin will require you to create a Facebook developer account and create an app to generate the API credentials to configure this plugin.
How to Create a Facebook Developer Account
- Navigate to Facebook and create your Developer Account.
- Register a Facebook app.
- Add the oEmbed product.
- Generate your App Access Token.
- Once you have generated your Token, oEmbed Plus can be installed and configured.
How to Use oEmbed Plus
- Users should install oEmbed Plus on their WordPress website.
- Navigate to your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
- Choose Settings, then select Writing.
- You will be prompted to provide your App ID and App Secret. Enter these details.
- Click Save Changes.
Once saved, the broken and existing embedded content for your website should continue to work, and new content will use the new APIs going forward.
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