Well it looks like Facebook and Twitter are now playing nice. If you’re logged into Facebook, this page will walk you through the process of hooking things up so that your Facebook updates will go out to your Twitter feed. Select what you want, and protect the rest. I’m going to leave this post as it is, but the link above is really the one you should use to make this happen.
I’m in the midst of figuring out a better way to automatically build a list of ‘tweets’ and have them scheduled throughout the day. My current system is a bit broken.
A friend pinged me on Facebook saying that he was looking for something else, an app that would post your Facebook status to Twitter. I thought checking this out would be easy, but given the changes Facebook has been through over the last while the resulting solution is a mashup, not an app.
Yes, it’s possible, not pretty, but possible. Here’s how to do it. Some of this information was gleaned from TechLifeWeb and JeffSandquist.com (thanks!).
- In FB, go to your Inbox > Notifications page
- At the bottom of the right column, there’s the link for the Notifications feed… right click on it and copy the link (or hit properties and copy the URL that shows up in the new window)
- To test that it works, paste that URL into your browser and hit enter. (You’ll see your notifications feed show up)
- In that URL, change ONLY the portion that stays “notifications.php” to “status.php” and hit enter.
- The resulting page ‘should’ be your Facebook Status RSS Feed. Here’s mine for an example.
- Copy your entire URL to a text document and save it. You’ll need it later.
- Get a Twitterfeed.com account. Twitterfeed lets you harvest your RSS feed at a set frequency and publish your feed to a Twitter account.
- Create a new Twitterfeed using the long Facebook URL you saved earlier, set your publish frequency, and you’re done.
Currently Twitterfeed is having some consistency issues — some, but not all of my feeds are being published correctly. They are aware of the issues and are working to fix them.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter Comment
Blog: Posting your Facebook status to Twitter: HowTo [link to post] http://post.ly/1J53
– Posted using Chat Catcher
.: Brad – wow! – well done. I’ll try this shortly (am home sick at the moment, not much energy). I would have NEVER come up with anything like this. Is it working? I realize that you are the man to follow, so I’ve added this blog to my Reader. Thanks for investigating this after my earlier question.
Thanks Randy. The solution was on the other sites, just needed to be updated slightly..which I did. Standing on the shoulders of others..etc…
And thanks for the blog link! Do let me know setting it up goes, and your thoughts on the process, if you’re so inclined
Twitterfeed is mostly working for me, but they are having a few issues..but are working on them.
Hi Brad. I set it up a couple hours ago, and just checked my Twitter feed. I had posted a FB status update a couple hours earlier, and that update has not appeared on my Twitter feed, despite having successfully followed your instructions. I set up an account with Twitterfeed.com, and pasted in the RSS feed for my status updates, and my notes as well. Nothing has appeared on my Twitter page.
Is it working for you?
Hi Randy, sometimes it takes a while for the Twitterfeed to ‘engage’. It looks like that has happened as your Twitter stream includes links from FB, with the source application listed as Twitterfeed. You should be good to go.
And, according to this ReadWriteWeb post, Facebook is in the midst of developing its own Twitter App…which would make these service-level-gymnastics redundant.
Thanks Brad. You’re right, what I didn’t realize was that Twitterfeed pulled my last four status updates, and added them in reverse chronological order. Duh.
Thanks again. Clearly I need to paying closer attention to your musings on Byte-Sized Technology In Easy-to-Understand Language!
And hopefully we won’t have to rely on this workaround, if Facebook really is working on a Facebook to Twitter application…we’ll see
I keep getting http 403 error The website declined to show this webpage
HTTP 403
Most likely causes:
•This website requires you to log in.
Am I doing something wrong???
Hi Nicole, I’m not sure why you’re getting that error…at what stage do you get it?
–Brad
It’s when I change the notification.php to stauts.php It then goes to that error message.
Hi Nicole, what’s the full URL you use before you change notifications.php to status.php?
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=1577791063&viewer=1577791063&key=ab1b64a69c&format=rss20
Hmmm, nothing unusual there Nicole, perhaps you have to adjust the security or sharing settings on your facebook minifeed? I’m not sure what they ‘should’ be set to, but will look into it a bit more in the next day or so.
I’m trying to create a feed of my status, I have my ID & key information correct, and when I try to check my feed I get the dreaded “This feed URL is no longer valid. Visit this page to find the new URL, if you have access…” page.
Has anyone discovered the cause of/solution to this problem? Is there anything in the privacy settings that prevent the status from feeding?
I’ve gone into my Settings > Privacy > Profile settings and selected ‘Everyone’ for ‘Status and Links’. Under Privacy > News Feeds and Wall > Actions within Facebook, I have checked all of the boxes.
I am having the same issue as chris, and have taken the same privacy actions to no avail.
Merci beaucoup!
Please help. This is driving me mad. I want to do the same thing — to get the RSS feed address of my Facebook status so I can put it in my aggregator or personal web site, but everybody keeps saying, “Go to the Inbox > Notifications tab.” There IS NO SUCH THING! I am not losing my mind. Why is this such a freaking hard thing to do? Is there a setting in my Facebook that is blocking my ability to see the Notifications tab? What’s the big security concern? If I want to allow my Status updates to be available as an RSS feed, that’s my prerogative, not Facebook’s.
Hi Sean,
No, you’re not crazy, that link is not there now. It seems that Facebook has updated the site’s navigation since this post was published, but not addressed RSS feeds. In fact, their own help on RSS Subscriptions is still out of date:
So I’d suggest pinging their support folk and ask for some clarification…
Good luck!
– Brad
This is great and is working for me.
But question – is there a way to create a similar feed for photos that I post on FB. As I post photos to my wall or to an album, I’d love to ping that out as an RSS.
Is there some tweak to the URL that would grab those? I tried some obvious guesses, but they were no go.
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/photos or [album].php?id=507536722&viewer=507536722&key=bf2ab35700&format=rss20
Hi Rex, I did a very quick google and also looked around Facebook, but didn’t have any luck finding a solution. Which is too bad, because this just reinforces the ‘walled garden’ of Facebook.
As an alternate, you could get a free flickr account and have those images piped into Facebook by linking your flickr account to facebook. It’ll result in an entry like this one: http://www.facebook.com/brad.grier?v=feed&story_fbid=155695335737&ref=mf
Thanks Brad – I sent you a Friend Request on FB so I could see your example. Or could you post a link to a screen capture?
Twitter Comment
@PatrickTiew Hey, try http://bit.ly/4cozmo, http://bit.ly/3LFuDB, [link to post] it should help you..
– Posted using Chat Catcher
I Did all right but im getting an error….
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=647083440&viewer=647083440&key=976a399914&format=rss20
then change it to:
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=647083440&viewer=647083440&key=976a399914&format=rss20
and heres what happens:
This URL no longer exists. Click this link, if you have access, http://www.facebook.com/minifeed.php?status&id=647083440.
Hmm, I just tried it using the first example you listed — with notifications.php instead of status.php — and got a valid RSS file in return — see this image: http://twitpic.com/1074ks
Not sure what error you’re getting?
I get the exact same error as thomas (#24). All the websites that tell you “Oh, just replace ‘notifications’ with ‘status’ and it works great” must not have tried it recently. Sure, it works with ‘notifications’ but you can’t get similar results with ‘status’. I’ve been struggling with it for over an hour, I think Facebook has just locked it out or something.
Yes Thomas knows he gets a valid RSS with the notification page. It is when he changes notification to status which is the wall, it errors.
Hmm, I’m wondering if it’s an account-based setting. I just tried both my Status URL and Notifications URL and both return the RSS feeds as they should.
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=566085737&viewer=566085737&key=a6c39deda0&format=rss20
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=566085737&viewer=566085737&key=a6c39deda0&format=rss20
Hi Brad,
I have try before
it was ok, but now it return me:
Tommy Christanto's Facebook Status Updates
http://www.facebook.com/minifeed.php?status&id=694224065
Tommy Christanto's Facebook Status Updates
en-us
StatusSyndicationFeed
Facebook Syndicationhttp://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification
webmaster@facebook.com
although i already set all on account > privacy setting to everyone
any idea?
Hi Tommy, check out this link — it seems to be the simplest way to hook Facebook into Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/twitter/
Re: #30 – yes, but it only links *pages* you are an admin for, not your own profile status updates.
I, too, am getting the error message when I try to change “notifications” to “status.” How are your privacy settings set for your profile? Though, acc. to #29, setting privacy to “everyone” still isn’t working.
Kind of puzzling, this one. Thanks for everyone’s comments/suggestions/relaying trials & errors – and for confirming that a few of us are not alone in our frustration!
If it will help – even with the new FB upgrade, my FB status updates are still being transmitted correctly via Twitterfeed to Twitter (not that anyone is following them; but at least I don’t have to do anything to get them there).
The link I am using at twitterfeed is (perhaps this will help others to see a working one?):
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=507536722&viewer=507536722&key=bf2ab35700&format=rss20
Hey, first off Facebook changed status codes so they are not the same as notifications. You can do the same trick but go to Account->Application Settings->Notes then on the right there will be a link to subscribe to friend’s notes, copy the link and then try changing “friends_notes.php” to something else.
My problem is that I’m getting double posts like:
John is happy
John is happy
And one will be a link?
Any solutions to this?
This functionality may have stopped working… the RSS hasn’t updated since late Thursday night, although I have updated my Facebook status several times since then.
I am wondering if, perhaps, this means FB is about to flip the switch on a direct feed from Facebook status to Twitter for user accounts (as noted above, it only works for “pages” now).
What’s odd is that the URL that Rex gave above works, but when I substitute my own ID for his, it doesn’t. So I created a second account, made myself my only friend, and tried it that way — still no joy.
So it really does feel like a case-by-case thing, unless I’m missing something.
@Andrew: Yeah, I know. It’s frustrating to not have more info on this…and it seems like Facebook has done a partial implementation. The functionality seems to random. Likely logical within Facebook’s structure, but looks random from out here.
You ROCK Brad – Thanks! xxx
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