Facebook Messenger for Sailfish OS (workaround 2017)

Integrate Facebook Messenger chat on Sailfish OS Messages

Step by step guide for a workaround to get Facebook Messenger as a Sailfish OS account on Jolla Phone, Jolla Tablet or any other Sailfish OS device. Does not require Android support. Using your phone number or your unique FB-ID when logging in you will also have all your Facebook contacts integrated to the People app.

This workaround is tested to work on September 2017 using Sailfish OS 2.0.4.14 and 2.1.0.11. The test was done using a phone number known by Facebook. This workaround should work on all Sailfish OS versions.

Workaround: Facebook Messenger - Instant Messaging for Sailfish OS

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Disclaimer: Using developer mode on your Sailfish OS device is on your own responsibility. Using repositories from an unofficial 3rd party is on your own responsibility. While this workaround has been tested to work for now, it's not guaranteed to work in a long run.

1. Enable the developer mode to access Linux Terminal

• Make sure you're connected to the internet and you have an active Jolla account set up on your device.
• Navigate to Settings > Developer Mode and enable developer mode
• Enter your new password, either writing it yourself or letting the system create one for you. Write that password down!
• You can now find a new app Terminal in your app launcher. Launch the app and enjoy! (reboot the device if not visible in the launcher right away)

  (Additionally, if you want to control your device via a computer:)

• Enable remote connection in the developer mode, and check your device IP. There's one for WLAN and one for USB connection. If using WLAN, please connect your computer and mobile device to the same home network.
• Open terminal in your computer (on Windows, install for example Putty), and configure the connection: Use the correct device IP, port 22 and connection type SSH
• Login with username "nemo" and your developer-password
• That's it! You're the captain of your Sailfish OS device.

2. Commands to be written in the Terminal

Launch the terminal app if you didn't already, and start writing the following lines, pressing enter after each line. Some of the commands require a confirmation step [y/N] on which you should enter y every time. At some point your device might note about error in the store, you can simply ignore that. The first line is written after a $ -sign which will change to # -sign after the password is given. Let's start:

devel-su

[your password for the developer mode in invisible writing, hit enter]

pkcon install zypper

ssu ar mister http://repo.merproject.org/obs/home:/mister/latest_armv7hl/

zypper ref mister

[if you get a PackageKit error, just reply y to abort it and continue. Ignore store error too]

zypper in libpurple libpurple-plugin-facebook

zypper ar -f https://sailfish.openrepos.net/nodevel/personal-main.repo

rpm --import https://sailfish.openrepos.net/openrepos.key

zypper in haze-accounts-extensions-facebookmessenger

[Select option 2 when asked]

[Select y when asked]

exit

exit

3. Find your Facebook unique ID
  (or use phone number if known by Facebook and skip this step)

• Go to your own Facebook profile in any browser
• Click on your own profile photo and find the page url (https://....).
  Your Facebook ID is the last series of numbers after the last dot (.) in the URL. For example:
  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203392994545623&set=a.1272965604297.32171.1834630811&type=3&theater

4. Add Facebook Messenger account

• Navigate to Settings > Accounts > + Add Account
• Select "Facebook Messenger" (if not visible, repeat all commands in  2.)
• Username: YourFacebookID
  (you can also use your phone number if known by Facebook)
• Password: YourFacebookPassword

5. Reboot the phone

• Additional to a reboot, you might need to visit the Jolla Store once or execute a few more reboots. As soon as your Facebook friends start appearing to your People app, you're ready.

Notes:

• You can have both Facebook account and Facebook Messenger account activated at the same time, or only either of these, however you prefer.
• You will see a green line in the People app for those contacts who are online in Facebook
• You can find all your online contacts in the People app under the globe-icon
• You can link your Facebook contacts to your phone contacts. Sailfish OS does this automatically for contacts with the same phone number
• This workaround is enabled, via opensource library "libpurple-plugin-facebook", openrepos reposition by "nodevel" and the most importantly, great coding by Mister1Magister (Twitter). Please support his valuable work with thanks and donations. He's currently coding a Messenger app for Sailfish OS enabling both this and many other IM services.

Known issues:

• An unread message might give several notifications on your device. If this happens to you, visit Facebook Messenger using a browser and read the message there to mark it as read. 
• You can only send messages to people known by the phone, meaning that their FB contact information must be saved into the People app.
• If you receive a chat message from an unknown person, you might see just a numeric Facebook ID as the sender. You can save these contacts as new with a name or link them to any existing contact.

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Image: by Jer101jer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Published: 2017-03-25 17:07 UTC
Updated: 2017-09-05 12:28 UTC