Facebook’s Overdue Mobile Overhaul
It’s not breaking news that the Facebook mobile applications were in desperate need for an overhaul across all platforms. This week, Facebook released the newest version of its app for the iPhone. Despite the update’s success, Android users are still left impatiently waiting for a more functional version of Facebook on their devices.
The biggest issue with the older (or for Android users, current) version of this application was loading time. Mobile users would attempt to open a Facebook chat message thread, a photo, or even their notifications list only to be met with a continuously loading spinner. Other hiccups along the path to smoother functionality include: inaccurate notifications (for instance, showing new messages when there are none); a delay between when messages are sent and received; a lack of cohesiveness when navigating from the news feed to viewing comments and details of individual posts; no un-friend option; no access to the Administrative panel on managed pages.
The aforementioned issues were just a few of the ones mentioned when the development team of Facebook for Android went to Reddit just over a year ago to ask its users how they could improve the platform. To this day, very few of the problems Android users face with this application have been resolved; however, with the recent release of the improved iPhone app (written in native code as opposed to HTML5), there is a renewed sense of optimism for its Android presence.
Due to the sub-par performance of the Android app, Facebook is requesting that its employees use only Android devices in order to effectively troubleshoot, brainstorm, and produce constructive feedback when faced with the day-to-day issues its users experience. Facebook blogger Jonathan Dann wrote that the social network is clearly shifting its focus for the development of mobile products, and although he does not make any direct statements about the future of the Android application, technology commentators seem confident that it will see its makeover soon.
