Facebook as account or App?

[sting7k]

Hello WP7 users! Long time iPhone user and just got my Lumia 900. I'm a little lost.

I wanted to see how everyone prefers their Facebook integration and what the benefits are exactly. Do you prefer to setup Facebook as an account on the phone and link with the people hub? Or just do you just use the App?

Also, what are the benefits of adding it as an account? I see it has pulled in all my friends but I don't really know if I need/want all those on my phone. If I just use the App what am I missing out on? I also saw it asked me to link Facebook and MSN chat, what does that do? If I just use the App will I get facebook messages?

Thanks.

 

[ljkelley]

Honestly you are going to want to use both.

Built in is really nice. You can hide contacts that don't link to prexisting contacts on the phone. But the plusses are photos sync for the contacts. If you look at a particular contact you can see their latest status etc... Photos from Facebook are in the Pictures app. Events from Facebook are in your calendar (Though I would recommend to change the setting to only confirmed events). Most notifications are in the Me tile. Everything is really intergrated.

The App does have its additional uses. Birthdays and more finite Event controls. A view of all notifications even game requests etc.. You can see who is nearby. You can view who likes something instead of just the number.

Both methods allow a thorough view of the news feed. You should play with both to see which you like as the look is slight different. Of note though is that a friend can hide themselves from 3rd party apps. WP7 the OS, or the built in account linking is thus considered a 3rd party app. The app is not considered a 3rd party app, even though it is not made by Facebook, I assume it does have Facebook blessing.

 

[freshairr]

I link it with the people hub. It's integrated at the OS level so the positives are that it'll be immensely smoother and slicker than the FB app. Nearly everything you need to do (comment, like, events,e tc) you can do within the hub.

I also have the app though because you can't answer/make friend requests and sometimes when I'm out and about and making new friends, you need to do that.

If you use the app by itself, you're not missing out on much, except for it won't integrate within your contacts. FB chatting won't be as easy and you can seamlessly transition from chat to text when they go offline. (can you even chat in the fb app? i haven't checked)

You get FB messages within the app and your messages hub. The only downside is that you can't send messages to offline FB people, as you can within the app.

Seriously, set it up at the OS level. and keep the app for when you need to do something you can't within the people/me hub

 

[Verkunder]

You should absolutely add a Facebook account on the phone. Adding one allows all of your contacts to come alive, and really do what the phone was meant to do. You can see their photos, statuses, etc. Otherwise it's just a faceless name and number.

While the thought of seeing all those contacts showing up, you can alsways hide them by tapping Settings in People, and then clicking "filter my contact list." This way you can just see who you have numbers for/care about. You can also link them to a number you have in your phone, if they don't put their number on Facebook.

Adding an account also lets you use Facebook instant messaging. It's most useful if you want more ways to stay connected to your contacts. Not available on Messenger? Switch to Facebook chat. They need to text you? Just switch to text. It all stays in one thread, too, making it seamless.

I only use the app if I need to post on a group page, add/remove friend and respond to a message. The integration in the phone is much faster and better to look at, in my opinion.

 

[sting7k]

Awesome information guys. Thanks a lot, big help. I already found the contact filter. I will see how it goes this weekend. Really digging this so far.

I see the app is made by Microsoft, I'd wager Facebook had input. It does seem pretty bare bones though compared to the iOS version, no biggy really. Could at least add pull down to refresh.

 

[sketchy9]

Of note though is that a friend can hide themselves from 3rd party apps. WP7 the OS, or the built in account linking is thus considered a 3rd party app. The app is not considered a 3rd party app, even though it is not made by Facebook, I assume it does have Facebook blessing.

This has been fixed. The built-in hub now acts as a 1st party app (i.e. all status updates are visible).

-R



Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[dkp23]

I use both. The integration is missing some features like tagging when checking in and other non-deal breaking things. I primarily use the integration for reading, updating, uploading pics, facebook stalking.

When i need to add a tag for checkins and other small things, i use the app which is rare in my case.

Love the integration, i hope it can replicate a real updated app though where you can do anything that you could do on the website.

Making a group for friends/family and pinning the group to the start is nice too because you can see all the updates that they do on live tiles.

 

[inteller]

Awesome information guys. Thanks a lot, big help. I already found the contact filter. I will see how it goes this weekend. Really digging this so far.

I see the app is made by Microsoft, I'd wager Facebook had input. It does seem pretty bare bones though compared to the iOS version, no biggy really. Could at least add pull down to refresh.

as an account, Facebook acts like contacts on steroids. if you want to do some of the more website features launch the app. But by linking into people hub, you will be able to build history on when and how you've interacted with that person (phone, messaging, etc)

 

[anon(5339784)]

Honestly you are going to want to use both.

Built in is really nice. You can hide contacts that don't link to prexisting contacts on the phone. But the plusses are photos sync for the contacts. If you look at a particular contact you can see their latest status etc... Photos from Facebook are in the Pictures app. Events from Facebook are in your calendar (Though I would recommend to change the setting to only confirmed events). Most notifications are in the Me tile. Everything is really intergrated.

The App does have its additional uses. Birthdays and more finite Event controls. A view of all notifications even game requests etc.. You can see who is nearby. You can view who likes something instead of just the number.

Both methods allow a thorough view of the news feed. You should play with both to see which you like as the look is slight different. Of note though is that a friend can hide themselves from 3rd party apps. WP7 the OS, or the built in account linking is thus considered a 3rd party app. The app is not considered a 3rd party app, even though it is not made by Facebook, I assume it does have Facebook blessing.

I do both.

The integration is good for plenty of reasons (most of which are obvious and already stated, but sadly misses one important feature for me, which is to write someone a Facebook message instead of just the option to just write on their wall) and I wouldn't skip on linking my phone to facebook, plus you can watch photos and photo albums much more easily and much faster than in the App or Web Browser. You can view them the same way you would view local photos on your phone.

The App is sadly not good enough (slow, lags, bad layout when writing messages etc, I just don't feel "solid" and secure in that what I am doing will really actually make it to Facebook, and to the right person, also the dekstop site is much faster for everything except for popups appearing, but I use a 1st gen phone) so I used the browser version of touch.facebook more often, and since they screwed up the layout of pictures a few days ago and it navigates very slowly (on Wifi), I now mostly revert to the Desktop version, which also loads much quicker because it just refreshes the News Feed when I get back to it like it does on the Computer, instead of loading the whole page again.

 

[eric12341]

Why do people keep saying that the people hub is a 3rd party app? This is false information as this has been fixed like a month and a half ago. And you'll most definitely want to use the integration. Contact pictures,statuses,news feed and integrated events in the calendar plus chat. I only use the app to approve friend requests,respond to offline messages and check birthdays.

 

[Major]

I use both. I also have Twitter configured both as an account and through an app (several apps, actually). It may seem redundant, but in practice is works out as something greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[jmerrey]

I use the twitter/fb integration for quick access things like posting pictures, posting a status, checking in, etc. I use the fb and a third party twitter app for more time intensive things.

One thing I have done is create a nice twitter update group. I follow all the okc thunder players, plus the beat writers. I have them in a contact group called "Thunder" which is pinned to my homescreen. It's like a little Thunder app. I can read all the twitter updates from the players and writers in one place, with a live tile that scrolls thru thier pictures. You could do this with virtually anything: pro teams, musical groups, Howard Stern and his wack pack, whatever...

 

[HeyCori]

I'm built-in only. Anything more complex than posting, responding, or uploading a pic and I prefer to use a computer. Otherwise I'll use IE9 Mobile if I absolutely have to.

 

[sting7k]

I use the twitter/fb integration for quick access things like posting pictures, posting a status, checking in, etc. I use the fb and a third party twitter app for more time intensive things.

One thing I have done is create a nice twitter update group. I follow all the okc thunder players, plus the beat writers. I have them in a contact group called "Thunder" which is pinned to my homescreen. It's like a little Thunder app. I can read all the twitter updates from the players and writers in one place, with a live tile that scrolls thru thier pictures. You could do this with virtually anything: pro teams, musical groups, Howard Stern and his wack pack, whatever...

Whoa, how do I go about this task? For instance your example of Howard Stern is perfect because I already follow several staffers and Howard. I want to check this out.

 

[freestaterocker]

I use the people hub and the browser. The app sucks.

 

[freestaterocker]

Why do people keep saying that the people hub is a 3rd party app? This is false information as this has been fixed like a month and a half ago. And you'll most definitely want to use the integration. Contact pictures,statuses,news feed and integrated events in the calendar plus chat. I only use the app to approve friend requests,respond to offline messages and check birthdays.

If you add the email account you use to sign into Facebook you will automatically get birthday updates on the WP calendar.

 

[socialcarpet]

I link it with the people hub. It's integrated at the OS level so the positives are that it'll be immensely smoother and slicker than the FB app. Nearly everything you need to do (comment, like, events,e tc) you can do within the hub.

Seriously, set it up at the OS level. and keep the app for when you need to do something you can't within the people/me hub

This pretty much sums up how I use it.

I don't like to get absorbed in Facebook on my phone, I actually deleted the app on my previous phone for that exact reason, and only used the webpage on the phone's browser.

I don't have the Facebook app installed on my Lumia either, with the people hub, I very rarely even need to pull up the webpage. The Facebook integration on WP7 is really brilliant and a time-saver, it's a great example of their "get in and get out" philosophy. I love it.

 

[jmerrey]

Whoa, how do I go about this task? For instance your example of Howard Stern is perfect because I already follow several staffers and Howard. I want to check this out.

people tile -> new (hit the three dots menu if you aren't sure) -> new group -> name the new group -> add contacts -> save

after you save it, open the group (you'll see it above your contact list) and hit the "pin" button at the bottom

now you have a little howard stern app, where you can access each individual twitter or, by swipping over to "what's new" you can see all their twitter updates in a timeline

don't forget to add debby the pet lady