Facebook for Android updated, brings new features to homescreen

By on Aug 4, 2010 at 8:31 AM
Software August 4, 2010

Last night, the Android iteration of Facebook was updated to bring it more inline with its iPhone counterpart. While there are a lot of minor fixes, the major changes center around the homescreen, and include:

  • The ability to post a status update or search for friends with just one click.
  • A new photo reel that enables easy viewing of photos and videos from friends in your News Feed.
  • A draggable Notifications drawer where you can easily see if a friend posted a note on your wall, commented or liked a post or tagged you in a photo.
  • Video playback from the app. Similar to the Facebook for iPhone application, we are using the H.264 baseline profile for encoding videos.
  • Support for Events. You can now review your upcoming events, read your event details, and even RSVP – all from the application.
  • Respond to friend requests without leaving the application.

The interface looks more polished, and it is far easier to tell if you have wall notifications (or any notifications) from all 3,000 of your closest internet friends. The photo drawer down the bottom is also pretty cool. The updated code — version 1.3 — is available in the Android market as we type. Enjoy!Read

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  • http://cassch.in Cass Chin

    I was hoping the notifications area would link you within the app, not to the browser. This update is meh for me.

  • mysciencefriend

    it would be nice if they would start using froyo’s push framework.

  • Doll

    SPeaking of Android apps, when is BGR finally going to stop discriminating and release their app for Android?

  • http://www.facebook.com/siriuskayla Kayla Riley

    Having a national radio show on Sirius XM where I communicate with my listeners daily thru my fan page on Facebook, I find the FB app for the Droid completely useless. One of the main reasons for getting the Droid was to be able to update & upload pictures to my fan page for my listeners. I need to update regularly the Kayla Riley fan page & the Sirius XM Octane fan page with posts & pictures which currently I cannot do with this app. One of the great features of the iPhone FB app is to be able to choose the pages I belong to under the Friends tab and be able to update those pages from my phone. This is so disappointing since FB is a necessary tool I use to stay connected to my listeners. I’ve shared this with them on the air & with FB posts, so they know the negative feedback. Please let’s try to add this feature to the Droid FB app as soon as possible!! Thank you in advance for your efforts to fix this issue. Kayla Riley

  • Random

    Not to hijack, but a Facebook App came with my Droid Incredible – and it sucks, but it is different than the app we are all talking about.

    Should I un-install the HTC-version of Facebook and replace it with this apparently more polished version?

    • james

      Not satisfied until I can set my default picture, crop photos, and tag pictures from my handset.

  • Rahul

    Notifications are still useless in the app because they rely on opening the browser. I find it easier to just use touch.facebook.com

    They really need to make this app browser-independent.

    Also, the photo reel is a decent idea, but shouldn’t be on the app main screen. They should have made an icon for Photo Updates or something that would show photos in a grid layout.

    You didn’t mention the FaBook Chat app that seems to have come with the update cause I don’t remember installing it.

    They should take better advantage of widgets and live folders, I would love a Facebook Events widget or live folder.

  • michael

    After the update, clicking friends makes my HTC incredible force close. Don’t they test these app updates before they release them?

  • http://androidupd.com AndroidUpd

    This was well needed. I like this thing that it show status updates and when the person has birthday when someone calls. Try to do that on an iPhone ;)

  • Mike

    The new update really is a piece of crap! The old one integrated nicely with contacts. I got a message yesterday saying I ran out of room on my Incredible. It was because the new FB had added all of my friends to my contacts… MULTIPLE TIMES!! I ended up with over 3100 contacts!

    The app is also force closing, even in the background (com.htc.bg). The friends list does not work. The photo reel is a waste. Facebook chat is nice and all, but don’t really use it. The BB app allowed me to add friends based on e-mail. This one does not.

    I tried uninstalling the update, but it kept freezing. Finally got it to work, and now ALL of my contacts got erased.

    • Alex

      Multiples of the same contacts are being added to my cellular telephone as well! How do we stop this?

  • dreamer

    *cant create a new photo album.. can only add to an existing
    *cant change profile pic
    *clicking on links in notifications screen doesnt work at all after the update
    *no chat function
    *timeline information isnt always up to the minute even after manual update…

    Theres more i can’t think of right now.. i cant believe thy cant get it right.. its already a good app on iphn and black berrys…

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