Android's official Facebook app just got a pretty major upgrade in Version 1.3.0. You'll immediate notice the difference in the user interface, with a photo reel at the bottom that lets you quickly flip through your friends' recent photos and videos. And see that notifications bar at the bottom? Drag it up for the list of recent notifications. There's also one-tap access to post a status update or search for friends, video playback withing the app using H.264 encoding, support for Facebook events (review, see details, RSVP) within the app, and respond to friend requests.
We can't help but wonder how much of a hand Erick Tseng had in this, given that the former senior Android product manager left Android for Facebook just a few short months ago. Regardless, we're mostly liking what we're seeing. Check out some more screen shots after the break, and let us know what you think in the comments.
102 Comments
first
sorry had to do it
LOL nice.
Umm, no you didn't.
I didn't think 10 year olds could afford a smartphone and bill, guess I am wrong if there are little kids on this forum that got to post "First"
no you're not. congrats, here's a medal.
Still uses the browser when u go to ur notifications.
I agree, very frustrating to have to go to the web to respond. Also, no support for chat?!?
eh, for this i just got meebo =T still not a fan of meebo, but i guess having a facebook chat app or chat support from facebook (officially) is just a lot to ask for
Just use any XMPP facebook client and point it to [your-shortname]@chat.facebook.com
looks nice...but slower than before...debating on uninstalling....
"We can't help but wonder how much of a hand Erick Tseng had in this"
Actually, my first thought was how much of this was brought about by Facebook's founder, since it "made news" when he personally switched from iPhone to Android.
I was thinking the same thing... once The Man had to use that piece of **** for more than 20 seconds I'm guessing he got sick of it lol and made them get their rears in gear to write a better app
Downloaded on to my (and my wife's) Inc., get errors trying to open friends lists and my FB widget no longer works... Looks nice but there seems to be some bugs to work out.
tried reinstalling. No luck. Widget and friends list still error out. Weird. It sucks, I like the update, just doesn't seem to like my (or my wife's) Incredibles. :(
I had the same problem until I did a battery pull. ;)
Ugh... battery pull? I just had a Storm flashback!!! LOL
You can full power off the phone without pulling the battery. Using the "Power Off" feature does the same thing as battery pull.
Don't treat it like a BlackBerry ;)
having the same issue. the widget works, but the friends list still crashes the app even after a reboot. boo...
Very strange because last night when I upgraded to this version my friends list worked. Now I get an FC every time I try to access it. I'm on a stock 2.1 Droid Incredible.
I've tried reinstalling, rebooting, and battery pull...nothing. I still get a force close error when i try an open the friends list. GD!
Just downloaded it. Both the app and widget are working fine on my incredible.
Nice improvements.
looks more like the ipohone app, good thing!
Now we want notifications to open in the application not the browser.
true... it's a good start!
But how can you do Farmville notifications anywhere else? :p
The update looks better, but I hate that after 3 updates, you STILL have to get pushed to the browser everytime you click on a notification, considering the iPhone version has had this for well over a year. What makes it worse is this one links to the mobile site, but redirects me to the normal full Facebook site, which I find obnoxious. That notification issue aside, great app though!
Fuck, about time!!!
And the guy who posted first, how old are you. I hope you get banned.
Ironic. An individual who has to use an expletive to make a point, should not be talking about getting someone banned.
if you want them to read it, maybe u should have hit the reply button on their post? just a thought u_u
Now we need the ability to manage and post to pages.
The notifications should keep you in the app, not take you out of the app. With the Froyo update to EVO when you comment on a post the first letter of the first word is automatically typed first when you're in the browser on the full site.
Overall it's the same app just laid out differently with a few additions to the home page.
Wonder if it still doesn't play nicely with the x's facebook UI
i agree. i still have to leave email notifications active so i can see when someone comments on a post i make or after a comment i make...seems archaic to me. i'll take it one further, i leave my text notifications active so i can see when certain friends update their status, i'd like to see that integrated as well.
so, yeah this should have been a reply to below post, but you get the idea.
Still no integration with the notification bar?
Even blackberry has push notifications.
It has notifications, but just for Msgs, Friend Requests, and Invites...and they seem to be a bit flaky. Baby steps.
"Even blackberry has push notifications"
Blackberry is the master of push notifications. And integration with the notification bar doesn't make it push. It makes it integrated with the bar. Push means the site actively contacts YOU when something changes. Like the Gmail app. Unlike the HTC Mail app.
More specifically, it would need to use the same system that the Google apps can access - and for that you need Froyo:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/05/android-cloud-to-device-m...
Once these social networking and IM apps implement it, I'm going to be a happy camper.
Yeah Bloo still kicks this app's ass when it comes to notifications.
Works well on my dinc.
Hmm, is there a way to post videos? I could do it on the facebook app in winmo but I don't see on android.
Lipstick on a pig. Still have to manually check for notifications and then when there are any it takes you to the browser. What the hell is the point of having an app?? 1 of the 2 things I miss about my Blackberry is the facebook app. If Blackberry who is sooooo behind everyone with everything else can get it right why is it so damn difficult for Android to get it done? I dont get it
Try Bloo. I like it for notifications. They're prompt and appear on task bar.
Umm... maybe this update only appears for 2.x versions of android and up? I still have a crappy moto cliq -.- and I searched for the update, clicked the link above, and still couldn't find it... it doesn't appear in the market for my phone. Chalk one up to Android Legacy I guess..
So far so good on a Vibrant
Wow! They really did a great job with this update.
Its amazing that they still can't get this right. How have the Facebook app for BB and WinMo gotten it right for so long? BB only took one update to fix the major gripes users had. You'd think that the programmers would pay a little more attention to what is said on forums here and the many other android sites on the web
You must have gotten to the BB game late or something because it took more than one update for the BB facebook app to get good but I do admits the notifications was better but I see the next update hopefully addressing this hopefully...One can only wish lol
LMAO.. Real late.. It took a good year or so and the application still has problems. Only good thing about the blackberry Facebook native applicaion is notifications, which just to recently didn't work that well.
Does anyone else have problems with their news feed? I either have one post or none at all. :(
awesome, about time, and please let me see who likes a post for the next update.
Man i soo miss the BB facebook app!But im learning to like the Droid more every week. Now if i can just understand you guys lingo.LOL , What does ROOT actually do for the phone. What will it make my X do better than it already does?
Rooting is a term for modifying the system to gain Superuser(SU) permission to the OS itself.
Will it make my X do better - well the word "better" is ambiguous, but I'll assume you mean "perform faster" in which case rooting does NOT in itself accomplish this, but gives you the ability, for example, to install an application that allows you to manipulate the CPU's frequency (overclock) for more computing power.
Rooting definately serves a purpose. But just be careful and before doing anything, understand what it is you're doing!
Hope this helps.
I'm not an iPhone fan by any means but I love the Facebook app on my iPod Touch.
I DLd the new app on my Acclaim and had issues with the widget. I reboot my device and it works slick now
Solid update(s). Headed in the right direction.
Notifications are worse. Take you to either the touch site or the full site and when they take you to the touch site you still have to click on the comments link. It's a step backwards.
Definitely nice, but I cant or can't figure out how to upload pics to an album.
Inside the album you wish to upload to, click the little "camera" on the top right.
You can also just do it from the phone's camera after taking a picture, or from inside the gallery.
I would like the ability to tag pictures. Another Facebook fail.
Very very very nice update. Almost there. No more being dumped out to the browser. Speed things up a bit, fix notifications (hit or miss currently), revise the refresh interval, and get chat going and this would be one sweet FB app for sure!
This is much much better than the previous version, however, I'm still keeping Bloo (1.5) for the chat portion.
I'm running Droid X, fwiw.
Its nice for stock users. But I'm going to wait till the developer who made my theme blacks it out and tweeks it a bit. Speaking of which I think I might drop him an email.
This is nothing but a COSMETIC Update. The app still sucks balls!!!! Gawd I miss the FB app on my Palm Pre, unlike this garbage we get with Android. Still going to browser for notifications?? Still a 160 character limit to posts? No push notifications? The only reason I have my FB acc set to send me email alerts of notifications is so I can actually get the friggin notifications when they happen without FB being open and running!
I like it, but I'm not going to be completely satisfied until the notifications go through the app itself instead of requiring a browser, and I get comments as a notification in the notification bar.
Nice, but still no live feed. :(
there still is no option to tag photos ugh
Im sure someone has said this but... come one FACEBOOK. We want notification like as in ... Comment on status,like on status,wall post comment.. do we see those no we dont. Android need you lets do this thang.
Still no push to device
Still no notifications on post (but now you can go see them at least)
Still no photo tagging
And for me, the links inside the notification are all broken.
Why is this so hard for them to get right? The app on my Blackberry Curve from 2 years ago was better.
Another thing. I would like to see all the people who liked my status from the status itself not having to go to notifications or touch site.
ugh, my palm pre within 7 MONTHS had a way better fb app than this. If there are so many more Android users than Pre, then why can't FB developers get it done a little faster?
But this is a good step in the right direction! The fixes and UI tweaks are a positive thing here. Let's not focus so much on the negative, but hope that it's sign of many more awesome changes to come!
Agreed. The Pre was my first smartphone, and I finally understand why people keep saying WebOS has the best UI. Although there is a lot to like about Android.
about time, but still not good enough... I almost want to get an iPhone every time I look at the Facebook app on my mom's iPhone 4. Moto Milestone user here.
Waiting for the next update.
Wow I am always ready for the new updates and waiting for some new.Thanks
Stretch marks
I am not impressed. When I can get notifications in real time and view, like, unlike, comment, delete comments and everything else internally through the facebook app I shall remain...unimpressed
Just updated and it's a nice improvement but it takes a while to refresh comments. Still needs improvements.
Is there any way of updating the client that comes installed on the phone (1.2)? There's no update button in the app, and it seems like 1.3 would install separately from the Market.
It won't. Just install the market version and it'll update over top of the version that comes with your phone.
I was kind of excited downloading the update but there nothing but cosmetic change. Where are the push notifications? the chat? I don't get it. Why does this ap STILL suck
I can't sync contact pictures to my contact list. If I select Link to Facebook, it opens the FriendStream Facebook app.
Seems to run fine on my dInc with latest 2.2 leak.
When I try to play video files in facebook they give an error, "sorry, this video cannot be played" This is with videos that friends post, as well posted youtube videos. anyone else? please check on this and post...
I don't see a way with this app to remove an event from my list. When I receive event invites, I like to remove the ones I decline. I see no way to do this without using the browser. Is there a way to do it using the app?
Thanks.
Why the big deal about notifications? I instantly get notifications to most on FB on my phone via Text and/or email. Why would I want yet another place to clear it?
i get email and text notifications as well, but only because facebook doesn't notify me (as many here, including me, believe it should). i shouldn't have to get an email or text, and then proceed to facebook, it should all be integrated.
Random question: If I download this directly from the Market, does it replace the Facebook app that's already loaded on my phone? I tried finding an "update" function in the current Fb app and failed. I'm running stock 2.1 on my Sprint HTC Hero. Thanks!
Yes it replaces the existing Facebook app. Note though that if you come to remove it (assuming your Facebook app came preloaded) it will likely say remove update. You can't remove the version that came with the phone as far as I know without rooting your phone.
be careful with this new version. it looks like it is preventing the phone from going to "sleep". at least it is on my EVO. installed this new version last night and almost had a dead battery this morning. when i checked, facebook kept the phone in an "awake" state all night long.
Had the same problem on my Hero. Installed, browsed once, then almost dead battery in no time with Facebook taking the prize in the partial wake usage.
This seems to be a useful improvement. Small step in the right direction though. Hopefully this is a minor re shake of the app whilst they work on something a little more radical. Still, it seems enough of an improvement to make me change my shortcut from the touch site to this for now.
It looks like Facebook has taken over this project. Before it was not developed by Facebook itself. Their contact information is now a Facebook address and on it's Facebook page the "this app is not developed by Facebook" is now gone! Looks like we should be getting full support sooner or later!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/apps/application.php?id=74769995908&v=wall&ref=ts
After updating to the new version on my Samsung Captivate, the Facebook app would hang repeatedly - had to reboot the phone several times because its extremely high resource usage was disabling the rest of the phone.
It finally managed to load up normally, but it seems the background process it's installed for syncing is a huge resource hog as well. When it syncs to facebook, it's causing system stutter even when facebook is backgrounded - unresponsive GUI and skips and pauses in music played through the Samsung music player. No other resource-intensive apps running.
Seems to me like they need to optimize some of their code a bit better - somebody's using a kludgy algorithm somewhere (probably related to iterating over friends' data).
Has anyone figured out how to sync the birthday party of the facebook calendar with the calendar on the phone? Im using a Lg Ally
Eagerly awaiting new update to this update......
It's Great! Feels more like on my computer. Before it was very limited! Nice!!!
It's Great! It's almost like being on my computer. Before it was very limited. Nice!
Going to wait to install this one I think..
Facebook is more and more clever than before.
Android is applied to http://www.gindart.com/, too
I am an avid user of FaceBook. I am quite impressed on this application since this is related to facbook. I truly would support this and maybe "liked" it on. Am gonna go to facebook and be a fan of this one.
Happy Blogging!
Janice of stretch mark removal
This is cool. I do want to see some. I was browsing here and very grateful to have found some very interesting posts here, seeing the very views of many commentators here is what a blogger wants to gain or belong to.
Cheers!
Genie
skin tag removal
This is what I like on Android's applications. They have constant updates on their applications. I'd like to hear more after a month or week =)
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wart removal