The much anticipated Facebook application for Android phones quietly launched this morning. Our review, including a video, are below.
This is an “official” Facebook app, the company tells us, even though the page says “This application was not developed by Facebook.” That’s because, as we previously reported, Google has actually built this themselves – obviously having a Facebook application was strategically important to them.
The application is, to put it magnanimously, “feature light.” There is no messaging at all, just the news stream, the ability to post status updates, and the ability to take/upload photos to Facebook. Most of the cool stuff iPhone users have with their 3.0 app just aren’t available for Android yet.
One thing it does well, though – it’s fast. When I was using an iPhone I always just went to Facebook via the browser because the app was way too slow to be usable. The Android app is brisk, and whisks you through the three or four functions quickly and without much of a hitch. Another nice feature are notifications of new events – since Android apps can run in the background you’ll optionally see this stuff even when you aren’t actively using the app.
I haven’t seen any bugs yet, although some commenters on the Facebook page are saying otherwise.
ouch giving ammo to MG?
i was just thinking that!
An anticipated application! It sounds good to see Facebook on Android phones. This new application is obviously created by Google itself to take over the stuff of iPhone 3.0app.The quite interesting feature in the Android app is it is faster, brisk, and whisks through three or four functions quickly at the same time easily and runs with the background.
Up to now there are no bugs seen in the new combined app. But we have to wait and watch.
The video is broken.
If not much to Review , how about a story about Obama mentioning Google , Facebook , Twitter today and asking children’s to stop using Xbox
Doesn’t seem to be the kind of app I was hoping for
I really expect to get a 1:1 adoption of the newest iPhone app on Android.
Google has actually built Facebook application themselves, which is really great. But doing it in the right way is better than doing it anyway.
The initiative is good, hope this would flourish more and become identical to Facebook application developed by Facebook in all the functionalities.
That would be a full fledged application for Android users.
Background notifications is quite a big step for a Facebook mobile app/access, no? I’ve not tried the iDrone app but I assume given that Apple don’t allow multitasking with their mobile OS, you don’t get any notifications when you’re not using it. You certainly don’t get notifications pushed at you using your mobile browser with http://m.facebook.com or http://x.facebook.com
I thought the new 3.0 iPhone app was very fast, at least compared to the previous versions.
Will be uploading this on to my htc mytouch w/ the HERO* rom ASAP.
So far the sense ui w/ rosie and flash on the mytouch is the best phone you can get in the USA.
As I said elsewhere, a polished beta, at best. Great, it lets you look at your base stream. So do a bunch of third party apps already, and more. Heck, I’m looking at that right now in Seesmic. I’m pretty sure my son can see his on his 360 and my mom’s got a bathroom scale now that runs her Facebook stream. Whoo-hoo.
Whatever, Facebook is last decade’s pizza, at this point, and they won’t matter at all except to retired folks in a year or so.
Its fast, but lacks the power of the iPhone app.
Comparing the two is like comparing your fast, light weight android pistol to MG’s M1 Abram Tank.
It might be slow, but it delivers the “boom.” (the boom is for video FWIW).
It seems to hide information of users who block facebook applications. I figured being a Facebook product, it could beat babbler in this regard. Guess not..
Facebook by Google – kinda like Sears selling Lexus automobiles.
when did FB become a mid-tier luxury web app? I didn’t know Google is a dying company like Sears.
It means Google does not have to do EVERYTHING – they are are out of their ‘league’! I understand why they did it. I guess it is better to deliver low grade then no grade!
Interesting. What are the features on the Android version that you found most lacking? I.e. in advance of feature parity with the iPhone version, what are the features that would be most important to you?
Background notifications are where it’s at.
whee!!!
No way that is facebook approved.
“Most of the cool stuff iPhone users have with their 3.0 app just aren’t available for Android yet.”
I’m not a member of the grammar police force. But, I just read the article about the google then/than mixup and I found this sentence amusing.
What’s Android?
Dude, you’re running a bunch of stuff on that phone.
What all?
Also, QR code that links directly to the Android Market when do an Android App review, man. Much faster that way.
am I the only one that doesn’t find the iphone app to be particularly slow?
Arrington? You “AREN’T” serious R ya?
Mobile phones are the new cross platform porting decision of the 90s.
Get your compilers shined up, grab a stick of Juicy Fruit. The binary is going to move you.
Microsoft proved that Office for Mac team could do things that outpaced the core Office for Windows team in UI treatments.
The next critique will be of versions and when and how they are delivered on phones. Just like the press generated by updates (12.2.0) for Office 2008 for Mac, there will be folks lining up to say Facebook isn’t porting fast enough or playing favorites with specific phones.
The desktop dilemma is coming to a pocket near you.
The Marketplace listing mentions the developer as “Facebook” with a gmail address. The facebook page says not developed by Facebook. Something doesn’t seem right… I’m not trusting my facebook credentials with this app until I get some confirmation that this is an official app.
If developed by Google, I’d expect it to say so with an @google.com email address.
Other people have noticed the same thing:
http://phandroi...droid-launches/
http://androidc...arket-20090908/
Read the 2nd paragraph of the article. It states it wasn’t developed by Facebook, it was developed by Google.
No one has mentioned that the App has Widgets and Live Folders. =)
Speaking of which ANDROID can multitask so using a client like nimbuzz for chat makes it less of an issue.
Notifications sort out the events and inbox. I am hoping Google starts syncing this stuff with Google Wave which already has confirmed an App for Android.
Now it will be easy for the people who don’t get time for social networking. After this service, people can access facebook from anywhere anytime.
Note that this app is not developed by Faccebok the company. It is developed by “Facebook for Android™”.
I actually liked this app. Here is why http://bit.ly/9hKTF
The Facebook phonebook widget is certainly worth mentioning and something the iPhone can not do.
yeah, just don’t touch the widget or you’ll crash it. uninstalled.
and really, i feel sorta bad for google. i imagine them sitting around saying “dang, we best get a fb app out soon cause folks are pisssssed. oh, and when do you think it’s a good time to tell them fb has decided to never ever create an app for android because they hate us and think we create vaporware?”
I’ve found babbler lite to be a very capable facebook app so far…
Android is good..good..
Thank’s for review sharing. Nice posting ^_^