Several popular iOS apps including Spotify, TikTok, GroupMe, Pinterest, and Tinder reportedly faced crashing issues due to a problem in a Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK) integration.
The crash had apparently affected multiple apps, as can be seen in the discussion on this issue raised on Facebook iOS SDK’s GitHub page. “Well, this certainly got our entire team rattled and the boss foaming at the mouth. Crazy how the FBSDK tracking the app launch can cause everything to come crumbling down. Whomever QA’d this change, I fear for their job.”, wrote a developer.
According to reports, there was a change in the type of data that the Facebook SDK server provides when an app opens which was causing the crash. If reports are to be believed, it looks like Facebook made an update to its SDK servers to identify if an app was a health-app or not.
Facebook was quick to rectify the issue, and said “Earlier today, a new release of Facebook included a change that triggered crashes for some users in some apps using the Facebook iOS SDK,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. “We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Spotify acknowledged the issue and wrote “We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out! We’ll keep you posted.” In a follow-up tweet, the company said “Good news! Everything is good to go and looking happy. Still having issues? Give @SpotifyCares a tweet.” after the issue got fixed.
The issue was reportedly caused due to a server configuration update. After reports of the issue, the company reverted the changes which seem to have fixed the issue. “The change needs a some time to be propagated to all server. Some apps already seen the crash stopped. We also turned off the feature. It will be effective within a few minutes,” said the company.
