I’m building a website that needs to show Facebook profile pictures. Is there a way to get these images without making users approve my app? I’ve heard about the Facebook API but I’m not sure how to use it for this. Can anyone explain if it’s possible and how to do it? I just need the picture URL for each user’s public profile page. Thanks for any help!
I’ve dealt with this issue before in a project. Unfortunately, there’s no official way to get Facebook profile pictures without user authorization. Facebook tightened their API access to protect user privacy. You used to be able to grab public profile pics with just a user ID, but that’s no longer allowed.
However, there is a workaround you might consider. You can construct a URL using the user’s Facebook ID that points to their public profile picture. It looks like this:
https://graph.facebook.com/{user-id}/picture?type=large
This URL will redirect to the actual image file. It’s not guaranteed to work forever, but it’s been reliable for my projects so far. Just keep in mind it’s not an official method, so use it cautiously and have a fallback option ready.
As someone who’s been in the trenches with Facebook integration, I can tell you it’s a bit of a minefield. The method sophiac mentioned can work, but it’s not without risks. I’ve had success using a different approach that doesn’t rely on Facebook’s API at all.
Instead, I scrape the public profile page HTML and extract the image URL from there. It’s not perfect, but it’s been more reliable in my experience. You’ll need to use a server-side script to fetch the page content and parse it. Be aware that Facebook might change their HTML structure at any time, so you’ll need to keep your scraper updated.
One caveat: this method can be slower than API calls and might violate Facebook’s terms of service. Always have a fallback plan and consider the ethical implications before implementing. In my projects, I’ve found it’s often better to ask users to manually input their profile picture URL to avoid these headaches altogether.
hey, i’ve found a trick using facebook graph api w/o auth for public pages. use:
https://graph.facebook.com/{username}/picture?type=large
replace {username} with fb id or handle. it maynt work for every case but def worth a try. best pcject luck!