Integrated chat after Facebook updates

[Loco5150]

As many of you probably have noticed Facebook made some changes to their chat. You have the "mobile" "web" texts next to your green dot when you are online, showing on what device you are online on. I think it messed up the integrated chat on Windows Phone.

First of all when you have the integrated chat "online" it shows you are on "web", like you are sitting on a big screen.

Secondly before the update, when you set your chat status on your Windows Phone to "away" you were showing offline at Facebook even though you received all messages to your messaging hub. Now after the change it shows as online also. So anyway you have your chat on at messaging hub people think you are sitting on a computer.

This makes the integrated chat pretty much useless now, because people think you are online from a computer they chat to you much more. Anyone else have noticed this? How do you feel yet again MS approach to whole Facebook, no matter how good idea, lags as its not done by Facebook themselves apposed to iOS / Android apps. Both of those apps by the way wwere updated with this update.

 

[IceCrush]

Well the idea of integration is good, but they didn't nail it ... Most of the time its not working which makes it unreliable.. I think Microsoft should make that part easily updateable through the store so that they can make changes to it quickly whenever facebook makes changes ... The fact that this platform lacks w reliable facebook messages app with reliable notifications is a shame ..

 

[Loco5150]

Im running gdr3 and it actually was/is 100% reliable. All messages come though in time. Only now after Facebook's changes its not usable anymore.

Thats true, the integrated part is a great idea, people hub and chat. However they are so cripled that we still need the app. The app thats behind iOS + Android for ever. So at the end, we have two broken Facebook's.

Everytime I post something I need to think "I want to tag friends, should I use this or that"

I dont know can MS ever dort this mess out really...

 

[Psycmeistr]

Yep-- it would be nice if you could like individual posts within a thread. I see that you can like some pics others posts, and are not able to 'like' others- for some reason known but to God and the developers.

 

[Loco5150]

No suport for groups, offline messages, what you said about liking replies in posts and the list goes on. What is also very annoying, is the fact you cant send pictures in the integrated chat... The question comes, what is the real use of the integrated part if we need the app anyway?

Please, give us ONE good way to use Facebook instead two crappy ways.

 

[Loco5150]

I think integration is a great idea, but not thought trough. Any Facebook user coming from iPhone or Android will disslike WP because of this poor Facebook experience of WP. I think MS has really dropped the ball here...

 

[Maaz Mansori]

I think when this was originally developed for WP 7.5, it worked great. However, around the same time or shortly after, Facebook combined their messaging and chat services. Then at some point last year, the integrated chat started to allow you to leave offline messages but no other improvements were made.
There have been many problems with integrated chat not working properly for some periods of time for a variety of reasons including changes Facebook made, problems on the Facebook server, problems on the Microsoft server, etc.
My thinking is this though. Assuming that chat will work reliably, Facebook should fix it so it says "Mobile" instead of "Web" and then show how long you've been away like it does for IPhone/Android when you have been inactive for a specific amount of time. The thing is that integration is useful. I like the ability to switch between Facebook and text messaging with the same contact. It may not have all the features that the Facebook client has but it should at least suffice for basic chat services. The same built in Facebook support is even more useful for uploading pictures and posting status updates directly from the phone and I certainly wouldn't want them to remove those features.
Speaking of the Facebook client, they really need to have the messaging refresh in real-time. It would make the chat much more useful and provide an alternate method to chat that has all the additional features.

 

[Al_2]

I did a test to see what it said when you change your status on the Messaging app on WP. If you set it to Available it'll show you as online on the web. If you set it to Busy it doesn't show you as online (it shows the mobile symbol with when you were last online, which seemed to be when I was last on FB on the actual web or with chat set to Available on your WP).

Presumably WP8.1 will address all this as those chat statuses don't refer to FB at all. I'm guessing they were for Messenger?

As far as I can see being in the Facebook app doesn't show you as online.

 

[Jacko_au]

I think integration is a great idea, but not thought trough. Any Facebook user coming from iPhone or Android will disslike WP because of this poor Facebook experience of WP. I think MS has really dropped the ball here...

Purchased a 920 to explore the windows mobile experience, coming from an iPhone i was excited to venture into another platform only to find out that Facebook messaging and Skype messaging to my family has been a hugh failure for me.
Every app and the phones software has been updated, logged out of Facebook on the iPhone, been into every setting i can think of and still no luck.
I just hope someone sorts this mess out soon.

 

[Loco5150]

I did a test to see what it said when you change your status on the Messaging app on WP. If you set it to Available it'll show you as online on the web. If you set it to Busy it doesn't show you as online (it shows the mobile symbol with when you were last online, which seemed to be when I was last on FB on the actual web or with chat set to Available on your WP).

Presumably WP8.1 will address all this as those chat statuses don't refer to FB at all. I'm guessing they were for Messenger?

As far as I can see being in the Facebook app doesn't show you as online.

No being on facebook app is offline. But our app is sooo laggy and buggy...

So integrated chat would actually put you on mobile when you set it to busy? I will test this tomorrow. Before the fb's changes setting it away made you offline even though you received the messages to the hub. This is lost, or at least it was few days ago when they changed things and I tested this.

 

[Loco5150]

Purchased a 920 to explore the windows mobile experience, coming from an iPhone i was excited to venture into another platform only to find out that Facebook messaging and Skype messaging to my family has been a hugh failure for me.
Every app and the phones software has been updated, logged out of Facebook on the iPhone, been into every setting i can think of and still no luck.
I just hope someone sorts this mess out soon.

Are you using the integrated Facebook chat? Connected your account to you MS account and activated the chat to your messaging hub? This is actually pretty good way to use FB chat, except you cant send pictures and whatnot.

My problem now with this was, that now after the new changes it seemed my status is always "online from computer" which of course is not the case. People talked to me all the time when I was on the move, and had to turn it totally off.

 

[Al_2]

No being on facebook app is offline. But our app is sooo laggy and buggy...

So integrated chat would actually put you on mobile when you set it to busy? I will test this tomorrow. Before the fb's changes setting it away made you offline even though you received the messages to the hub. This is lost, or at least it was few days ago when they changed things and I tested this.

It shows the mobile symbol (not the new green online mobile symbol)...and I still get messages to the hub when set to Busy.

I did just try changing it to Away and it doesn't say I'm online. To be honest who knows how it works! It's a bit of a mystery.

 

[Loco5150]

Im not a developer, but look at Rudy behind great apps like 6tag, 6sec and others... This is one guy, making great apps.. I dont get this, how cant MS a humongous monster company with real problem with their mobile marketshare, get one freaking app up to par with iOS and Android. Really, how many people they have working with this?

Facebook is a serious thing for many mobile users. Especially those users they would lile to get, the ones who buy the premium devices...

 

[Loco5150]

It shows the mobile symbol (not the new green online mobile symbol)...and I still get messages to the hub when set to Busy.

I did just try changing it to Away and it doesn't say I'm online. To be honest who knows how it works! It's a bit of a mystery.

Ok need to test tomorrow, 1:30am here. I tested this same day the new changes came to FB, maybe they tweaked it.

I hope so because I like the integrated chat.

 

[Al_2]

Im not a developer, but look at Rudy behind great apps like 6tag, 6sec and others... This is one guy, making great apps.. I dont get this, how cant MS a humongous monster company with real problem with their mobile marketshare, get one freaking app up to par with iOS and Android. Really, how many people they have working with this?

Facebook is a serious thing for many mobile users. Especially those users they would lile to get, the ones who buy the premium devices...

I wish they'd just hire Rudy to make the app and be done with it.

 

[Dreamspell]

AFAIK, the Messages hub statuses (available, busy, away) are Skype statuses, which I think the Messages hub uses to connect to Facebook chat. (Correct me if i'm wrong.)

I would also like if they could integrated other chat networks (whatsapp, etc) to the People/Messages hub, after making simple Online/Appear Offline/Offline statuses, appropriate for each chat network protocol.

 

[Binoya Mathews]

Facebook experience on windows phone seriously sucks(d app, integrated messaging)and that's surprising cuz MSFT even has a stake in Facebook,still can`t even get them to make an app for the platform.

 

[Loco5150]

I tested this and yes, it is correct. "busy" and "away" modes put you offline in Facebook, still enabling you to receive the messages to your hub. I guess it was temporary when the new implemetations came to FB and they were still tweaking things.

I dont think it will ever be possible to get the "mobile" status to show on Facebook when using integrated chat. Correct me if Im wrong, but our FB-accounts are connected to our Outlook so the chatting is routed to FB via MS servers and our Outlook accounts. Basically FB's servers wont see the difference are you online from your mobile, you have your Outlook.com open in browser or Windows 8 people app (or whatever it is in the modern UI side, I have uninstalled all this)?

Well at this point Im just happy that there is some other option than "online from a real computer" when using the integrated chat.

 

[Eric OConnor]

Is there an app in the market that is for just for the messenger feature of fb.? Like a live tile with toast notifications and all.?

 

[Loco5150]

You dont need an app for it, it is integrated in Windows Phone. In short you connect your fb to your microsoft account (outlook, live, hotmail...) then you can activate the fb chat from you messaging hub, same place you receive your txt messages. You will have the option to change your online status and you will receive notifications, toast and tile count.