Facebook’s been busy these past few weeks, updating their iOS apps to run natively and subsequently expanding its advertising empire to non-Facebook websites. Today, they released a totally revamped Android app and a slight update to their iOS app. Let’s take a look at the goodies inside, shall we?
Facebook for iOS 5.0.1 offers a bunch of goodies, the most important of which is iOS 6 support–for all that Facebook integration that people are going crazy over–and support for all those who already have an iPhone 5. There’s some other upgrades, including a slight speed bump, a nifty swipe-to-dismiss gesture for photos, and one-click newsfeed refresh. I had already been enjoying Facebook’s new app, and these updates offer significant performance improvements.
The Android app is a more major update. Facebook’s always loved to use its Android app as a testing ground. Not only has the app received a visual refresh similar to the iOS refresh, but Facebook changed some functionality as well. Notably, the new app puts a Facebook Messenger button on the News Feed page. Not only that, but the threading of conversations has been completely redone. And in what figures to be super handy for people for big-time texters, certain Android phones–curse you, fragmentation–will be able to text directly from the messenger app. The emphasis on mobile Facebook Messanger is interesting, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Facebook’s preparing a big push for its messenger service.
The iOS update is out now and the Android update should be on Google Play before the end of the day.
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