social_story_share

Share an image to Instagram Stories or Facebook Stories from Flutter, without pulling in the Facebook SDK.

Why this exists

Most existing Flutter packages that share to Instagram or Facebook Stories transitively depend on the Facebook SDK. This package implements the same image-to-Stories deep links directly against Meta's public pasteboard contract, so you can ship Instagram/Facebook Stories sharing without adding the Facebook SDK to your app.

Meta's public Sharing-to-Stories API does not support tap-through link stickers from third-party apps, so this package ships image-only sharing.

Usage

import 'package:social_story_share/social_story_share.dart';

final share = SocialStoryShare();

if (await share.isInstagramInstalled()) {
  await share.shareToInstagramStory(
    imagePath: '/path/to/your/1080x1920.png',
    facebookAppId: '160023622793',
  );
}

if (await share.isFacebookInstalled()) {
  await share.shareToFacebookStory(
    imagePath: '/path/to/your/1080x1920.png',
    facebookAppId: '160023622793', // required
  );
}

Facebook Stories ships visual-only: see the Facebook section below for the link-sticker limitation.

Setup

iOS

Add Instagram's URL schemes to your app's Info.plist so canOpenURL (used for isInstagramInstalled) and the deep link can resolve:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>instagram</string>
  <string>instagram-stories</string>
</array>

You also need a registered Facebook App ID. Instagram requires a non-empty, validly registered source_application value or it rejects the share with "The app you shared from doesn't currently support sharing to Stories." Grab the numeric ID from your app's Settings → Basic page at developers.facebook.com.

Android

The plugin's AndroidManifest.xml already declares the <queries> entries for Instagram and Facebook package visibility on Android 11+.

You must also configure a FileProvider in your host app so the image can be handed to Instagram or Facebook via a content URI. Authority must be ${applicationId}.fileprovider:

<!-- android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml, inside <application> -->
<provider
    android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"
    android:authorities="${applicationId}.fileprovider"
    android:exported="false"
    android:grantUriPermissions="true">
    <meta-data
        android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
        android:resource="@xml/file_provider_paths" />
</provider>

And android/app/src/main/res/xml/file_provider_paths.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<paths>
    <cache-path name="cache" path="." />
    <files-path name="files" path="." />
</paths>

Facebook Stories

Facebook Stories sharing mirrors Instagram's flow but with one critical difference: a real, registered Facebook App ID is required. Unlike Instagram (where any non-empty source_application value satisfies the deep link), Facebook validates the App ID against Meta's registry and rejects unknown values with:

The app you shared from doesn't currently support sharing to Stories.

So facebookAppId is a required parameter on shareToFacebookStory(...) and there is no bundle-ID fallback. Grab the numeric ID from your app's Settings → Basic page at developers.facebook.com.

Link-sticker limitation

Facebook Stories has the same restricted Link-sticker API as Instagram: the public Sharing-to-Stories integration does not expose a way to inject a tappable link sticker. shareToFacebookStory ships the background image only.

iOS

Add Facebook's URL schemes to your app's Info.plist:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>instagram</string>
  <string>instagram-stories</string>
  <string>facebook</string>
  <string>facebook-stories</string>
</array>

Facebook also expects your Meta App ID in the host Info.plist (same numeric ID you pass to shareToFacebookStory). Without this, the Facebook app may launch but stay on the home feed instead of opening the Stories composer:

<key>FacebookAppID</key>
<string>YOUR_FB_APP_ID</string>
<key>FacebookDisplayName</key>
<string>Your App Name</string>
<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
  <dict>
    <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
    <array>
      <string>fbYOUR_FB_APP_ID</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</array>

On iOS the plugin writes both com.facebook.sharedSticker.backgroundImage and com.facebook.sharedSticker.appID to the pasteboard per Meta's contract.

Android

The plugin's AndroidManifest.xml already declares the <queries> entry for the Facebook package and com.facebook.stories.ADD_TO_STORY intent. The FileProvider configured for Instagram is reused for Facebook.

Facebook's Android intent uses com.facebook.platform.extra.APPLICATION_ID (not Instagram's source_application extra). The plugin sets the correct extra for Facebook while keeping source_application for Instagram.

Testing the example app

The example app's bundle IDs (org.kqed.socialStoryShareExample on iOS, org.kqed.social_story_share_example on Android) are not registered against any Facebook App ID. Testing the example specifically with a real Facebook App ID — including KQED's production ID 160023622793 — requires registering one of those bundles against that App ID in Meta's dashboard. Without that registration, Facebook will return the "doesn't currently support sharing" error from the Facebook side, even though the deep link itself dispatches.

Status

• Supported: iOS, Android — image sharing to Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories.
• Not supported: web, macOS, Windows, Linux. Stories is a mobile-only concept on both platforms.

License

See LICENSE.