Microsoft is being forced to end all its Facebook Connect features due to a recent update to Facebook’s Graph API. Facebook integration, which started with the launch of the first Windows Phone in 2010, was seen as an important feature for the Windows Phone operating system.
No more Facebook integration
Microsoft products that will be affected from the latest update include Outlook.com Contacts, Calendar sync, Windows 8.x People and Calendar apps, OneDrive Online, Office 365 Outlook Web app, and others.
Facebook now has officially terminated Facebook Connect. The tool helped in linking a user’s Microsoft account with their Facebook account. The tool helped Outlook.com users to view their Facebook friends’ contact information directly within mail. In addition, for Windows Phone users, the tool was helpful in storing contact information in the People app. Also it helped Microsoft users share content from Microsoft’s OneDrive with their Facebook friends. But now, all this is gone.
In a blog post, Microsoft informed that Facebook contact integration in Outlook.com, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone will cease to exist. “Contact information for the Facebook contacts shown will no longer be updated with information from Facebook,” states Microsoft. With the change, Microsoft’s social connector for Outlook 2013 will no longer be connected to Facebook, and even the Office 365 Outlook Web App won’t be allowed to pull information from Facebook. In its blog post, Microsoft suggested some alternatives for services that previously depended on Facebook Connect integration.
Facebook – Microsoft partnership goes back a long way
Facebook’s updating its Graph API should not come as a surprise as the social network informed users of its plans to drop Facebook Connect and replace it with Open Graph protocol in 2010.
Microsoft may not be happy with Facebook for killing the Connect feature, but there was a time when the tech firms were actually buddies. Microsoft was also an early investor in Facebook. However, when Facebook hit solid growth numbers, it was forced to end a few of its old collaborations, which included dumping Microsoft Skype. And now, by ending integration with many Microsoft features, the social network will surely have infuriated the software giant.
