Understanding Upcoming Changes on Facebook (August 6, 2026)
Meta (Facebook) continues to update its API to simplify and optimize the insights available to advertisers.
These changes are initiated by Meta and are not a result of any actions or changes made by Dataslayer.ai.
These changes aim to streamline and optimize the insights available to advertisers. As a result, this update may impact your reports and dashboards in Dataslayer.ai if you currently use any of the deprecated metrics.
Impact on Dataslayer
Dataslayer retrieves the information made available through Meta’s APIs. Therefore, changes introduced by Meta may affect Dataslayer reports in different ways:
- When Meta removes a metric or dimension from its API, it automatically becomes unavailable in the corresponding Dataslayer connector.
- When Meta renames a field or changes its calculation method, Dataslayer may update the field name or the way the data is retrieved.
- When Meta modifies account-level access requirements, affected fields or breakdowns may return no values.
Periodically review your reports and dashboards to ensure they do not depend on removed, missing or renamed fields.
Most Recent Update — August 6, 2026
Starting August 6, 2026, Meta will introduce an account-level enablement requirement for certain Insights API breakdowns on some ad accounts.
The affected breakdowns include:
- Impression device.
- Hourly statistics aggregated by advertiser time zone.
- Hourly statistics aggregated by audience time zone.
- Frequency value, where applicable.
For affected ad accounts, Dataslayer queries that use these breakdowns may return blank or missing values.
Meta is restricting access to the mentioned data until it is enabled for the ad account.
How to fix it?
An administrator of the affected ad account must request access directly from Meta Ads Manager. Once this has been granted, refresh your queries and they will continue working as expected.
For instructions on enabling access, please refer to this Meta’s official documentation.
Previous Update — June 15, 2026
Meta has announced additional metric deprecations focused on Page, Posts, and Video insights, effective from June 15, 2026. According to their documentation, the API will return an invalid metric error for these metrics across all API versions, not only the upcoming v26.
Please, refer to Meta's documentation here and to the Meta v25 release blog post for the full official list.
Deprecated Metrics
| Metric Category | Deprecated Metrics |
| Reach | Organic post reach, Paid reach, Viral reach, Non-viral reach, Total reach of Page's posts, Paid reach of Page's posts, Viral reach of Page's posts, Non-viral reach of Page's posts, Post reach (page likers [fans] only) |
| Impressions | Total impressions of Page's posts, Paid impressions of Page's posts, Viral impressions of Page's posts, Non-viral impressions of Page's posts, Reels Unique Impressions |
Updated Metrics
The following metrics will not be deprecated, but Dataslayer has renamed them to reflect that Meta has updated the method used to calculate the underlying data.
Public Name refers to the name displayed for the field in Meta’s interface.
| Previous DS Metric Name | Previous Public Name | New DS Metric Name |
|---|---|---|
| Unique video views* | Unique video views |
Page Post Unique video views |
*Possible additional impact: Meta's own communication channels are not fully consistent. Some underlying metrics that power "Unique video views" (such as page_video_views_unique and post_video_views_unique) are listed as deprecated in Meta's v25 release blog post, but do not appear in Meta's deprecated metrics documentation. Because of this discrepancy, we won't know the exact final behavior until Meta rolls out the change on June 15. We will update this article as soon as we can confirm what actually happens.
Important: Because Meta has changed the underlying source of these metrics, the values returned may not be directly comparable to those returned before June 15, 2026. Expect some variation that reflects Meta's new measurement definition, not a data error.
Important context about scope
-
Unique video views, Total reach, and Total impressions are only available at the Page and Post levels.
-
For Reels-specific analytics, the metric Reels Unique Impressions (which previously served as the closest equivalent of Reels reach) will be deprecated on June 15, 2026. After that date, the only Reels-level metric still available will be Reels play count, which serves as the closest equivalent of Reels impressions. No direct equivalent will remain for Reels reach.
Previous Update — November 15, 2025
Facebook announced additional metric deprecations focused on page performance and content visibility insights, effective from November 15, 2025.
Deprecated Metrics
| Metric Category | Deprecated Metrics |
| Page Likes | Total likes, New likes, New likes (unique users), Unlikes, Unlikes (unique users), Net likes |
| Content Impressions | Viral Impressions, Non-viral impressions |
Updated Metrics
The following metrics will not be deprecated and will not change their name inside Dataslayer, but the method used to obtain them has been updated, resulting in a new public name in Meta’s UI.
Public Name refers to the name displayed for the field in Meta’s interface.
| DS Metric Name | Previous Public Name | New Public Name |
| Post Impressions (page likers [fans] only) | Impressions to people who like your Page | Post Views From Followers |
| Paid impressions | Paid impressions | Views from ads |
Previous Update — October 30, 2024
Since October 30, 2024, the following metrics have no longer been available in the Facebook connector for Dataslayer.ai. Please review your reports and dashboards to determine if any rely on these metrics, and consider making any necessary adjustments or substitutions.
Deprecated Metrics
The table below lists the metrics that have been removed:
| Metric Category | Deprecated Metrics |
|---|---|
| Page Interactions | Unique page engagements, Unique page likes, Unique page subscribes |
| Post Interactions | Unique post comments, Unique post engagements, Unique post reactions, Unique post saves, Unique post shares |
| Video & Media Views | Unique three-second video views, Unique photo views |
| Event Interactions | Unique event responses |
| App Actions | Unique app installs, Unique app uses, Unique game plays, Unique app feature unlocks, Unique app starts, Unique app payment details, Unique app adds to cart, Unique app adds to whitelist, Unique app registrations, Unique app content views, Unique app checkouts, Unique app achievements, Unique app purchases, Unique app ratings, Unique app searches, Unique app credit spends, Unique app tutorial completions |
| Omnichannel Actions | Unique omni purchases, Unique omni installs, Unique omni add to cart, Unique omni content views, Unique omni searches, Unique omni checkouts initiated, Unique omni achievements unlocked, Unique omni registrations completed, Unique omni app activations, Unique omni levels achieved, Unique omni ratings submitted, Unique omni credit spends, Unique omni tutorial completed, Unique omni custom events, Unique other mobile app actions |
| Cost Metrics | Cost per unique game plays, Cost per unique app installs, Cost per unique app uses, Cost per unique credit spent, Cost per unique mobile app install, Cost per unique mobile app adds to cart, Cost per unique mobile app adds to whitelist, Cost per unique mobile app registrations, Cost per unique mobile app payment details, Cost per unique mobile app content views, Cost per unique mobile app checkouts, Cost per unique mobile app achievements, Cost per unique mobile app purchases, Cost per unique mobile app ratings, Cost per unique mobile app searches, Cost per unique mobile app credit spends, Cost per unique mobile app tutorial completions, Cost per unique other mobile app actions, Cost per unique mobile app feature unlocks |
Recommended Actions
To ensure the integrity of your reports, we recommend reviewing your data settings in Dataslayer.ai. Where necessary, consider replacing the removed metrics with other metrics available in the Dataslayer Connector for Facebook.
For more information on these metric changes, you can refer to the Facebook Ads API Documentation.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us via our live chat on our website or via e-mail if you still have doubts or questions. We are happy to help!