If you have an app, and want to take advantage of Facebook for viral and organic growth, you need a Facebook app. Your product doesn’t need to be “on Facebook” for this to be useful. For example, if you have a mobile app and want to pull in your user’s friends list or share activity to Facebook, you’ll need a Facebook App.
Think of the Facebook App as a bridge between the product you are building and the Facebook features you want your app to use. Through that bridge you can bring Facebook data into your product and your users can share content to Facebook.
What can I do with a Facebook App?
You will need a Facebook App to have Facebook login and to pull in data from the Facebook Graph API. You will also need a Facebook App for the more advanced sharing opportunities provided by Facebook.
You do not need a Facebook App to use standard social plugins such as the Like Button or Share Dialog. But you do need a Facebook App to use OpenGraph. OpenGraph allows for much greater customization and distribution of stories on Facebook. You can use OpenGraph to create custom branded actions and objects, so your users can “Complete a Level” or “Rate a Movie”. We recommend that you create a Facebook App to use OpenGraph with implicit sharing, the share dialog, and the like button.
Getting a Facebook App
You can set up a Facebook App in less than 5 minutes to begin using advanced Facebook functionality such as OpenGraph. Check out our Walkthrough to get started!
– Alex