User Roles vs. App Permissions – how does it work?
To fully understand the authorization process, it is helpful to refer to the diagram, which illustrates the distinction between system permissions in Meta and the access granted to third-party applications:
Roles (Roles): The Page or Business Administrator assigns specific Roles to a user in the Meta Business Suite. These determine the maximum scope of capabilities and tasks that a specific user can perform on a given Page.
Permissions (Permissions): These are the consents granted to our app (NapoleonCat) directly by the user during the Facebook login process. They define what our app is allowed to do on behalf of that user. The app can never exceed the capabilities granted by the Role assigned to the user in Meta.
Effective access: The application can only perform an action (make a Graph API call) if both the user's assigned Role and the app's granted Permission allow it.
Practical examples:
If a user has the content creator role and grants our app the manage content permission during login, the app can successfully publish a post.
If a user has the appropriate role but did not grant the app the required permission, the Meta system will return an API error about the missing permission.
If the app received the permission, but the user themselves does not have an adequate role on a given Page (e.g., they lack access to manage messages), any attempt to take action will also result in an API error.
In this article, we explain where you can assign the appropriate roles and app permissions to connect your Meta profiles correctly: Connect your social media profiles
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