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Due to their efforts to comply with Europe and Japan’s privacy guidelines, Facebook will place restrictions on its usage of the Messenger API. These restrictions will apply for Europe from December 16th, 2020, and for Japan from April 14th, 2021. These changes will also impact the way Facebook DMs are handled within Freddy AI.
In this solution article, we will discuss more on
What’s causing these changes?
To comply with the privacy guidelines from Europe's evolving data privacy laws as well as the regulations under the Japan Telecom Business act, Facebook will be making changes to its Messenger API. Freddy AI makes use of the Messenger API to send and receive messages between businesses and their customers. Facebook had earlier shared an update, which outlines various Messenger API usage restrictions. As explained by Facebook:
As part of our efforts to comply with new privacy rules in Europe, we're making updates that will impact some developers and businesses that use our Messenger API. Beginning December 16th, several Messenger APIs will be unavailable for developers and businesses in Europe, and for people in Europe who connect with businesses globally.
Facebook has separately communicated that similar changes will come into effect for users in Japan, starting April 14th, 2021.
You can read the changelog announcement from Facebook here and their FAQ here.
Who will be affected?
The Facebook Messenger API changes that come into effect from December 16th will impact all 27 European Union countries and Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, United Kingdom, and Japan. So, even if your Facebook page isn’t located in the EU or Japan, you might still be affected. You will be affected by these changes if
- Your Facebook page is located within the affected EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, United Kingdom, or Japan.
- One or more of your Facebook admins is located within the countries mentioned above.
- Your customers are in any of the countries mentioned above.
How will this impact Freddy AI customers?
The following capabilities in Freddy AI will be impacted due to these API updates:
- Incoming and outgoing messages:
Freddy AI will still send and receive messages as text. However, attachments except for images (audio, video, files, etc.) on incoming and outgoing tickets will not be available. - Chat widgets:
Generic templates, button templates will not be rendered in the web browser or chat widgets. Users will see an error message letting them know that the attachment is unavailable. - Persistent menu:
The persistent menu inside the chat widget won't be shown in the conversation threads.
We will be updating this article with any further updates and suggestions to help moderate these limitations. Please reach out to support@freshdesk.com if you have more questions.
