Using the facebook Graph API to post a photo to the Wall Photos album doesn't update friend News Feed

Question

I'm using the C# facebook API for posting a photo through my facebook canvas app to my user's Wall Photos album which works fine and adds an update to the News Feed and Wall. However, the friends of my user do not get this update on their News Feeds even though my access_token includes the publish_stream permission*

var fb = new FacebookWebClient();
dynamic parameters = new ExpandoObject();
parameters.source = mediaObject;
parameters.message = "A message";
dynamic result = fb.Post("/" + wallphotos_id + "/photos", parameters);

Note that the user's friends don't have the app. When they install it, it works. But is this really necessary?

*All permissions: create_note manage_pages offline_access photo_upload publish_stream share_item status_update user_about_me user_photos video_upload

Answer 1

It could be because the algorithm that ranks potential items for the newsfeed doesn't consider the posts as interesting enough to the friends in your test sample to display them, but when they come from a shared app the algorithm gives them a higher score.

AFAIK You have no control over what gets displayed in friends newsfeed.