Applications meeting Facebook’s standards will be marked with a verification badge, and more importantly, “users will see more information from verified applications as we increase their allocations for communication channels such as requests and notifications, and increase visibility of their stories in News Feed.” Those are of course the same viral channels that helped many applications grow rapidly when the platform first launched, but also caused users to feel the platform was spammy as opportunistic developers bombarded them with requests.
So what does it take to get your application verified? Facebook has published 10 “Guiding Principles,” with the central themes being that apps should be “Meaningful,” “Trustworthy,” and “Well-Designed.” It also takes $375 – the application fee that Facebook is charging to developers seeking to get their apps verified. Facebook will begin granting apps the benefits of Verified status early next year.