Facebook has a far from exemplary record at making mobile apps. The iOS version was widely considered to be extremely poor until a recent update, and Facebook for Android was hardly perfect either.
In general, there were plenty of bugs, and it offered significantly less functionality than its full-fledged web avatar.
The most noticeable new features about the updated Facebook for Android app is that it introduces 2 extra icons in the app tray – Camera and Messenger.
What this means is that you can click and share photos instantly from your homescreen with the help of Camera (as opposed to clicking a pic, saving it in the gallery, opening the Facebook app and uploading the photo), and you can send and receive Facebook messages very easily.
The Camera link may just be the first phase of Facebook integrating Instagram into itself even further (Instagram has been taken over by the social networking company for an estimated $1.23 billion this month).
The direct link for Messenger in the Facebook for Android app is also said to be much improved, and offers an experience that has a lot more in common with the dedicated Facebook Messenger app (formerly Beluga), than with the woeful implementations within the Facebook app itself so far.
Some of the primary improvements in the Facebook app’s own Messenger are: the ability to see whether people in your friends list are online for chat on computers or from mobile devices; a smarter contact list that adjusts itself depending on who you talk to more often, and improved group conversation abilities.
You can download the latest version of Facebook for Android from Google Play.
[via TechCrunch]
