All of us iPhone fanatics are just getting our hands on the new apps, but I’ve already found one that I’m sure to consider indispensable within the next few months: Facebook’s new app.
Why is it so compelling? Because it almost eliminates the need to maintain a separate contacts list on my phone. While Facebook’s web app for the iPhone was cool enough, the native app basically transforms Facebook into a mobile directory with rich information about your friends.
If you’re even semi-serious about using Facebook to keep track of your friends, you may never have to click the “Phone” icon to dial them up. Just hit the Facebook icon and move over to the “Friends” tab. You’ll see all of your Facebook friends laid out, and when you click on their names, their contact info appears in the iPhone’s customary user interface.
Tap a friend’s phone number to call them (or hit their email address to write). The only time this method falls through is when a friend has decided not to enter the requisite contact info into their profile (something unnecessarily cautious, in my opinion, if you’ve set up your privacy settings correctly).
This application has the potential to eliminate the need for two other native iPhone features as well: SMS and Email. The app comes with Facebook Chat baked right in so you can send instant messages to friends who are currently online (either at their computers or on their phones). As soon as Facebook figures out a way to keep you “online” and available for chat even when the app is closed - and hooks Chat to the new push notification service so you’re aware of messages as they come in - I’ll be one step closer to saving that extra $10 per month I pay AT&T to let me send ludicrously overpriced text messages. Facebook should be working on a Chat-to-SMS (or Message-to-SMS) conversion feature that can be used to message with my friends who don’t own iPhones, or any other email-equipped smartphone.
As for email, Facebook’s messaging system is also built right into the app making it unnecessary to send lengthy messages through email (who wants to keep track of friends’ email addresses anyway when you can look them up by name?).
Joe Hewitt has also suggested on Facebook’s blog that the application will also become location-aware within the next few months:
The first version of Facebook for iPhone is just a glimpse of the future. For instance, the iPhone has the ability to find where you are located, and we are looking for ways to let you opt-in to share your location and discover nearby friends. We’re developing this and several other exciting new features that we’ll release in the coming months.
Looks like Loopt and all of the other location-based social networks are going to get a run for their money by the biggest player in town.
I have no fear that Facebook will thrive in the iPhone 2.0 world given this strong start. It’ll just need to find a way to get its developers involved since the platform is noticeably absent from the first version of this app.
Learn how to install the new iPhone software (which works on both the old and new models) here. Cross your fingers that you won’t lose any data during the update (I had no problems, however). Also check out the new MySpace iPhone app which, while quite functional, doesn’t replace the contacts list or provide chat.
Update: If you want to take a screenshot of an iPhone app, follow the instructions here.
Update 2: It looks like Facebook’s iPhone app doesn’t know how to properly render messages with quotations in them. Hopefully such obvious bugs will be worked out over the next few days.
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The problem is that, at least in my circle of friends, so few people disclose their mobile numbers on Facebook, thus rendering this directory useless.
Now if I could add their numbers manually and store them just in my account, this would be excellent…
No matter what is said in the media, if you go out tomorrow morning and you get an iPhone at $199 with a $100+ a month plan from AT&T, you are undisputedly a fool.
MySpace made one too:
m.myspace.com/offdeckverus/login.wap
And some kid that told the MySpace developer team off made one here:
http://www.viddler.com/explore.....3/220.555/
I am going to build ours soon with the iPhone emulator and other mobiles Adobe Device Central CS3 as I just got that today.
When Android hits, I am going to keep paying $29 a month. I am not paying a car payment to AT&T. I refuse. I resist. I immortal.
Chris,
I agree 100%. In regards to the facebook app, can you dial straight from your friends list interface? I don’t facebook replacing your contact list unless its a 1 touch operation to contact that person. Look… http://www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2
@James - yep, one touch
sure, but will it show you the person’s name when they call you?
sweet app — i appreciate that the inbox doesn’t reload every time, especially since i’m not on 3G yet.
but where’s the wall? joe must be goofing off again…
Awesome. For always connected phones, it honestly seems silly to have anything more stored on the phone than is absolutely necessary. Contact lists, text messages, etc. They should all be stored online.
You make it seem like every single iPhone user is a rabid facebook user.
“As for email, Facebook’s messaging system is also built right into the app making it unnecessary to send lengthy messages through email”
You expect people to get rid of traditional mobile email and push everything through facebook? One problem: when i send someone a message on facebook, they get a notification in their email that their friend sent them a message..in order to reply back, they need to go log into facebook and reply…why replace something so easy as email with these annoying steps?
“Why is it so awesome? Because it almost eliminates the need to maintain a separate contacts list on my phone. ”
TechCrunch reader, pull up your mobile contact list, go through and note how many contacts you are friends with on Facebook…unless its 100% (or close to it), this would never replace the standard contact list…
I have to agree with “please explain,” this post is ridiculous. Replacing IM, SMS, and email for facebook? This reminds me of their hard-sell blog post that advocated people leaving email for their crappy messaging service. How is this news? It’s just facebook propaganda…
This is great… now if only I could import this data into my iPhone contacts it’d be even greater.
Still, an amazing app.
@Please explain - Actually the vast majority of my contacts are friends on Facebook. Not all of them list their phone numbers, of course - hence the “almost”. But I would expect more to do so if they knew that numbers can be used on mobile devices like this.
Also, if Facebook is going to start being my universal contact list, they damn better find a way for me to export it to other services. I’m not touting the closed system approach; just excited about how functional this thing is.
@you’re joking right? - One problem with your argument: Facebook isn’t a crappy messaging service. It could be much better, but just by keeping track of my friends and constantly providing me with updated information about them, it has a leg up on standard email.
with location, FB can track anything abt an user. that cud open interesting features but thats scary at the same time.
i pity for the loopt,limbo folks..
Facebook and MySpace are both looking pretty neat, and I have to give them props. I have been working on zintin, which helps you discover and learn about the people around you. We think its the other half of social networking. Take a look: http://zintin.com
My sentiments are similar. Location-based services could be a real break-out category for the iPhone.
I’ve played with iPhone 2.0 firmware upgrade and AppStore. First impressions here: http://techtrends.billpetro.co.....-premiers/
No Facebook Platform on this thing is a huge plus. I love how its stripped down to its core elements of communication (sans wall)
@Mark Hendrickson, I think you overstate the importance that Facebook has in today’s world. Maybe people have accounts, but they see it as a loose network, not the same as people in your phone’s address book. I wouldn’t want many of my “facebook friends” to have my phone number.
I get antsy when I might be so embedded into a social network. Why? Because there’s always a better mousetrap being built. FB answered a need that MySpace wasn’t giving. More people I know use FB than MS, although they aren’t going as much. Thus, if you solely rely on FB, then what if another app comes along that crushes FB…maybe that app will allow u to port the FB contact list.
Mark - agreed, unless there are multiple platforms to use the FB contact list version, then I wouldn’t use it.
http://www.TechMediums.com
Just for the record, Facebook has had a message—>SMS feature for over a year now. I use it all the time, and it works very well.
What is Facebook? I’m confused now. They seem to be just an email system now. Is that worth $15B?
@Jaime, Where’s the “platform” on this at all. Its email and some click to call feature sans the platform.
@Ryan - reread what I wrote.
Not one of my friends (over 150) has their phone number on their profile, so that won’t work. but otherwise, i love this app.
I tried using Loopt on the iPhone and the app RESET my phone. Similar to this: http://getsatisfaction.com/loo.....ng_friends
It is good to see that Facebook will be providing an alternative soon. They just need to find a way to decrease the users network to a smaller subset that I would like to share my location with. They have a strong network and engineering team, so I wouldnt be surprised if they blow Loopt out of the water.
I am surprised that Loopt is ahead of Facebook. Maybe Apple was more willing to work with a smaller company for location?
Facebook needs to move quickly before Loopt establishes a good position on advertisement.
I cant believe Apple would showcase an app that is so poorly engineered that it crashed my iPhone!
To those who still don’t know (many as I can see here),
Mike Arrington gets thousands and thousands of dollars for hyping Fakebook
That’s what they call PayPerPost
He gets money, he and his minions post wonders about something posing like fanboys
He has no credibility whatsoever
@28. I didn’t know that, although it wouldn’t surprise me. Payperpost should be disclosed. In essence, I see it as no different than payola.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola
Without clear and direct disclosure about financial, or other, considerations being made in exchange for publicity through a website, I believe that the people involved do a disservice to its readership. In the past, I’ve seen formal relationships noted for some stories on TC, but I don’t recall any disclosures in regards to Payperpost.
TC, what percentage of your posts are driven by Payperpost?
the cheapest iphone plan, with (barely any) text messages, and 450 minutes, and after taxes, is nearly $85/month. Total rip off.
AIM supports chat-to-SMS btw, just throw a + in front of the phone number as the IM name, it works wonders… now if only the stupid iPhone didn’t log you out after a few minutes of inactivity… has anyone tried setting up some auto-bs-conversation with a bot to stay alive?
Lol Kaitlin BEAVER.
I know we all love to give love to Facebook, and the PC service is better, but I would bargain to say MySpace’s iPhone app is far superior. It has - unbelievably - a better interface in which I can do everything including writing on other people’s walls, viewing comments, photos, everything.
Facebook’s app on the other hand is, as you said, a pseudo contacts list. I can view my friends, their phone numbers, mini feed, and not much else. I can’t even access their wall.
Sure it’s nice that you can Facebook chat (even though I never use it even on the regular Facebook), though when I’m on my phone - like most people outside of the Valley, I suppose - I use SMS to reach people. It’s instant and they don’t have to be logged into Facebook to see my message. So explain to me how Facebook chat is a superior mode of communication? Sure it saves texts but I have unlimited data, so it’s far more convenient for me to receive an SMS than login to Facebook.
And if I were to login to an application to chat it would be AIM anyway.
I love TechCrunch, and I love a lot of the Web 2.0 technologies, but I thank God I live in NYC so I can see these things from a better perspective. The world doesn’t run on Web 2.0 tech yet and I doubt most of the Web 2.0 tech that is written about with such masturbatory glee will make much of a different to the mass market.
That being said, I do see the opportunity for Twitter to explode. Once you have a Twitter desktop app, it’s addicting to just see what your friends are up to. Have conversations with them? Not so much, but definitely to see their status updates.
Looking forward to hearing from Joe Hewitt at the mobile roundtable this month!
I’ve been having problems with the Facebook App on my 3G iPhone.
It resets my iPhone if I try starting app more than once after turning it on. I have to turn off the phone, turn it back on and I can restart the app safely.
It’s an interesting concept to use FB as a primary contacts list, but not nearly enough of my friends or clients have their numbers on there to use like that. For that matter, only one of my clients is even on FB at all. Add to this that I keep my contacts list loaded with additional information that isn’t on FB and has no place being put on there, and it’s just unacceptable for such a purpose.
Returning to FB being used for what FB was intended, what is an official FB app doing out there without any way of posting to someone’s wall? It could be argued that the wall was, and remains, their most core and important feature. Taking the wall out of an FB app is somewhat akin to taking the gas out of a car… now all it does is sit there.
It’s a very interesting idea and I think Mr Hendrickson could be quite right. The only issue is that they are many bugs with Facebook right. Once the application is corrected and tweaked, it could become a substitutable product.
Great app. Not got Facebook chat to work yet. While it is better in a lot of ways to the iPhone Facebook web app, why take out the wall? It is still the most common method people use to contact each other on Facebook. Another thing is the applications. In a way I am glad these have been omitted, because most are just annoying and ruin the whole experience, but I wish I was given the choice to have the applications available that I use a lot. Obviously that would require work from both Facebook and the developers of the applications.
Twitter should watch out though. Facebook mobile is becoming a lot more popular. 100% of my friends don’t use Twitter and use status updates. Everyone is using Facebook Mobile now. Twitter seems to be a lot bigger in the US, elsewhere in the world Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are still light years ahead in the amount of users. Why have Flickr for photos, YouTube for videos, Twitter for mini-blogs, Yahoo for email, MSN for chat when Facebook can do it all? Competition is good though.
Yeah, the Facebook iPhone app totally ruins the contacts list. I prefer to use it more as it is but a fact more convenient and interactive. To those who haven’t had this app until this time, get it now. Don’t be stagnant on using the contact list. There’s more that’s worthwhile!
Quick update - FB released a new version of their app, which has a number of improvements. Chief among the improvements… the wall!
I leave you to celebrate.
FriendSync will download and set your Contact’s images from Facebook, so when your friends call their images show up on your iPhone.
http://www.omnigensolutions.com/friendsync/
I’m going to tell Mark why is not good to use Facebook’s contact list as the main contact app.
My Facebook account got unilaterally disabled by Facebook main office by mistake. I lost all my contacts to whom I didn’t have backup. I had to set up a new account and start from zero. I learnt with this that you can trust only what you own and control 100%.
So please never use Facebook as your main contact list and do backup every single contact into your iPhone’s, Itouch’s or main computer’s contact app.
Thanks for Reading this. Xavier