Friend activity feed

The activity feed displays the progress of a user's friends in games, including levels reached, points scored and missions completed. Such notifications are a good way to remind the player's friends of the game.

The activity feed can be viewed:

  • •
    In the Games section of the VK mobile app for Android.
  • •
    In the Profile → Notifications block of the Games section of the desktop website.

Friend activity feed on desktopFriend activity feed on desktop

The activity feed helps the game stay in the information field of the player and their friends. Notifications about levels reached and points scored also help maintain the players' competitive spirit and spark the interest of other users. According to our statistics, the feed generates up to 20% of the total number of game installations and up to 15% of all launches. These numbers are roughly the same for the catalogs on mobile devices and the desktop website.

Requirements

The game can send notifications to the activity feed only after it's published in the catalog.

Implementation

To add an event to the feed, execute the secure.addAppEvent API request on the game's server side. The request parameters specify the following:

  • •
    The user to whom the message relates.
  • •
    Achievement type, such as points scored, level reached or mission completed.
  • •
    The value reached, such as the level or number of points scored.

The message text is composed automatically.

Points

When a user scores a certain number of points, you can add an event to the friend activity feed. It serves as a reminder of the game and increases engagement.

secure.addAppEvent parameters for points

  • •
    activity_id = 2
  • •
    value — number of points scored:
    • •
      Whole number from 1 to 10,000,000, inclusive.
    • •
      The value must always be higher than the points in previous event calls for this user.

If successful, the submitted value is saved on the game platform's side.

Levels

Game developers are fully responsible for the game's division into levels, their difficulty and transitions between them. Notifications about completed levels show in the friend activity feed, help the game stay in the information field of players and their friends, and maintain the effect of competitiveness.

secure.addAppEvent parameters for levels

  • •
    activity_id = 1
  • •
    value — level reached:
    • •
      Whole number from 1 to 15,000, inclusive.
    • •
      The value must always be higher than the level in previous event calls for this user.

If successful, the submitted value is saved on the game platform's side.

Missions

The game can send the feed an event about a completed mission. For that, call secure.addAppEvent with an activity_id equal to the mission identifier. In this case, the value parameter isn't required.

For more information, see Missions.

Usage features

  • •
    Adding events to the activity feed doesn't require additional confirmation or approval from the user mentioned in the notification.
  • •
    The game should only add events to the feed that are directly related to the user's actions and achievements in the game, such as completing a stage or upgrading a character.
  • •
    It's forbidden to send achievements for passive activity, such as friends' actions, gifts received or bonuses obtained without the player's direct participation.
  • •
    The platform saves the information about the level reached or number of points scored.
    • •
      For levels and points, each new value value must always be higher than the previous one, or the method will return an error.
    • •
      Maximum game level value is 15,000, maximum points is 10,000,000.

See also