How to Login to Facebook Mobile Apps with Login Approvals feature enabled

If you newly enabled Facebook Login Approvals feature for your facebook account, you are going to need to know how can you login to facebook apps in your mobile phone.

Facebook apps which are not web-based at all or which need you to enter your actual username and password to log into facebook, will fail to log you in with with your actual password. These apps include any of the apps e.g. any native app in your Android phone including “Facebook for Android” or “Friend Stream” or any other third party native apps for other platforms which require you to enter your username and password.

How would you log in then?

1. Sign in to your facebook account with your actual username and password.
2. You will be prompted with an error message that some error has been occurred and you can not log in.
3. Ignore the error and wait for text message (or SMS) on your mobile phone which you have activated with Login Approvals.
4. Once you receive the text message, open it. It should be saying some thing like “Please use the code XXXXXX instead of your password to login”
5. Get the code and try again signing in to your account in your mobile phone. Enter your username exactly as it is but in the password, enter the code you just have received via a text message.

The code will be expired right after you logged in with the code successfully.

See the following snapshots taken from an HTC Desire

Following snapshots taken from Gravity (a third party social app for Nokia devices)

As you can see above on 3rd snapshot of both devices are showing an SMS notification which. Open that text message, get the code and try logging again with that code instead of your actual password.

It’s awkward:

That the error on step-2 is not user friendly while it actually can be if developer wants it to be. This error can be handled by the developer as Facebook does response with a specific error message which can be tested and provided to the user to understand what he needs to do next. e.g. The official facebook app for Nokia devices does handle it carefully and tells the user what to do next, rather than informing about an unknown error. see the snapshot below