Cross Play

Updated: Mar 3, 2026

ARCHIVED -- Cross Play has been archived and is no longer actively supported.

What was Cross Play?

Cross Play was a framework that allowed games to work across multiple Facebook gaming platforms -- Instant Games, Cloud Games, and native (mobile/PC) platforms -- with a unified player identity. It provided a single identity system so that a player's progress, social connections, and game state could persist regardless of which platform the player used.

With Cross Play, a developer could build a game that ran as an Instant Game on mobile, as a Cloud Game for high-fidelity streaming, and as a native app, all sharing the same player account, progress, and social graph.

How Cross Play worked

Unified player identity

At the core of Cross Play was a unified identity system. When a player logged in on any supported platform, Cross Play ensured that:

• The player was recognized as the same person across all platforms.
• Game progress (levels, achievements, virtual currency) was synchronized.
• Social features (friends, leaderboards, challenges) worked consistently regardless of platform.

Platform abstraction

Cross Play provided an abstraction layer that handled platform-specific differences:

• Authentication: A single login flow that worked across Instant Games (web-based), Cloud Games (streamed), and native apps.
• Social graph: Consistent access to the player's gaming friends across all platforms.
• Entitlements: Virtual goods and purchases made on one platform could be accessible on others.
• Leaderboards and achievements: Shared across all platform versions of the game.

Developer integration

Developers integrated Cross Play by:

• Registering their game for multiple platforms in the Facebook App Dashboard.
• Using the Cross Play SDK alongside the platform-specific SDKs (Instant Games SDK, Cloud Games SDK, or Facebook SDK for native apps).
• Implementing server-side synchronization for game state and progress.
• Handling platform-specific differences in input, rendering, and capabilities through their own game code.

Why was Cross Play archived?

Cross Play was archived primarily because the platforms it was designed to bridge are no longer all active:

• Cloud Games were discontinued: With the wind-down of the Cloud Games program, one of the three legs of the Cross Play framework was removed.
• Platform consolidation: As Facebook focused its gaming efforts on Instant Games, the need for a cross-platform identity framework diminished.
• Simplified architecture: Maintaining a cross-platform abstraction layer added complexity for both Facebook and developers. With a single primary platform (Instant Games), this complexity was no longer justified.

Historical overview

• 2019-2020: Cross Play was introduced alongside the Cloud Games program to provide a unified gaming experience across Facebook's multiple gaming platforms.
• 2020-2021: A limited number of developers integrated Cross Play to offer their games on multiple Facebook gaming platforms simultaneously.
• 2022: Following the discontinuation of Cloud Games, Cross Play was archived.

Current alternatives

For developers who need cross-platform functionality today:

• Instant Games supports both mobile and desktop web experiences through a single HTML5 build. Players can access the same game on their phone or computer through Facebook.
• Server-side player accounts: Developers can implement their own server-side account system to synchronize player progress across different game clients (for example, an Instant Game and a native mobile app), independent of any Facebook framework.

Related resources

• Instant Games Overview - Learn about the current gaming platform.
• Cloud Games (Archived) - Historical documentation on Cloud Games.
• Facebook Login for Gaming (Archived) - Historical documentation on the gaming-specific login flow.