New Facebook App for WP8! Finally!!

[SoullessOnyx]

YES!!!! To bad I can not download the Beta app in England.

Anyone know when this app will be released?

 

[spampy2]

This is spot on to the IOS version and love it even if its slower

 

[ah06]

They shouldn't bring back the banner image or break any of the FB's internal UI conventions.

In this very specific case, since FB is a critical platform app, FB's own UI conventions >> WP/Metro's design conventions.

Cross quoting myself from another thread:

Some facts (some may find them to be opinions but they're really not):

1. Humans recognise icons, symbols and images more than text
2. Humans respond much better to colour as an identity marker
3. Metro wastes a LOT of space (in the People apps of other platforms, you can see about 10 people without scrolling, in the WP app, you see.......2)
4. Metro is very radical and does not lend itself to the navigation paradigms of every single app, product or service
5. UI design on most other platforms is more or less standardised whereas re-doing everything for Metro/WP takes longer
6. MS knows and has indeed accounted for a lot of this in their guidelines, they are OK with things not being all large text and pivot/panorama based
7. First class FB experience is more important that conforming with Metro UI. In a nutshell, FB>Metro design
Also, the hubs promise has more or less broken down. There are very few things in the People hub that competing platforms haven't caught up with and the Messaging hub is a pale shadow of the BB Hub.

The fundamental and specific issue here is that the FB app done in Metro was not only lacking in functionality but felt alien (to FB users perspective not WP/Metro users).

There are certain apps and services which I would call Super Apps/Services or Platform Apps/Services. The OS exists to enable them and to cater to them, NOT the other way around. As much as some might hate social networking, sharing, FB etc It is a critical and possibly the most important part of the mobile smartphone experience.

Such apps (FB, Whatsapp) and their needs always take precedence over the OS. Their UI consistency *between* apps on different platforms is far more important that UI consistency with Metro. This is WPCentral, everyone here is a WP enthusiast and would look at this from a WP perspective. But essentially, what it boils down to is WP and Metro as an OS and device exist to enable us to get to Facebook/Instagram/Angry Birds/Whatsapp/Email etc. These Super apps can/should do whatever is in their best interests.

When you look at it from a App/Service>OS in terms of importance perspective. It all makes sense.
Now 100s of millions of FB users are going to open the WP FB app and take to it like duck to a water. Earlier, they would be disgusted with the "metro" app.
This is undoubtedly a good thing for WP

This new FB app, its design, direction, attempts to maintain UI consistency with other FB apps/sites on other platforms is a very very good thing for WP.
No one will switch TO WP just because it has a better banner image
People WILL switch AWAY from WP if some of their core apps do not have the requisite functionality or are non-intuitive

 

[luk3ja]

Can u tag people in comments now? This needs to be on 7.5 as well

not by writing "@amy..." you can only tag so that it says "with amy" at the end

 

[luk3ja]

I have it in england

 

[sandmanfvr]

I saw this app was blocked in the background tasks. I uninstalled and reboot the phone, reinstalled and I got toast notification just now. For me resharng and tagging is spotty, but other than that it works great and faster. I wonder if it was being blocked slowed it down?

 

[philpeeps]

I saw this app was blocked in the background tasks. I uninstalled and reboot the phone, reinstalled and I got toast notification just now. For me resharng and tagging is spotty, but other than that it works great and faster. I wonder if it was being blocked slowed it down?

FB's background task is ONLY related to the lockscreen images since FB has proper push notification servers that don't require background tasks to work. You will see this if you enable the FB lockscreen and then check the background task for FB.

 

[sandmanfvr]

So I guess I need the lock screen enabled for toast? Ok then that is fine.

 

[theefman]

I saw this app was blocked in the background tasks. I uninstalled and reboot the phone, reinstalled and I got toast notification just now. For me resharng and tagging is spotty, but other than that it works great and faster. I wonder if it was being blocked slowed it down?

Its not listed in the regular list of background tasks, only under Advanced where you cant block or unblock. Sounds like your install was messed up somehow.

Edit: looks like the proper explanation was posted.

 

[sandmanfvr]

Fine with me, still rolling toast notifications in and I am liking it. Just small bugs in it and really this is a great Facebook upgrade.

Oh yeah Facebook Beta is running as background task to so it was all a glitch in the install. Reboot fixes all!

 

[ttsoldier]

for what kind of notification? tags/likes or messages?

A comment after mine.

 

[tk-093]

This is 100x better. The current Facebook app was pretty bad.. very bad actually. When i would pull up my Facebook feed on my PC, or on the official iOS or Android app, they would never be the same. The current Windows Phone app (and the People tile) had all kinds of extra crap filling up my feed that I I would never see on the official apps.

Now this new beta app totally matches all the others. Fanfrickentastic.

 

[deadwrong03]

not by writing "@amy..." you can only tag so that it says "with amy" at the end

so only in the statuses? Or u mean u can say with that person in the comments now?

 

[Chris_Kez]

They shouldn't bring back the banner image or break any of the FB's internal UI conventions.
Cross quoting myself from another thread:

No one will switch TO WP just because it has a better banner image
People WILL switch AWAY from WP if some of their core apps do not have the requisite functionality or are non-intuitive

And I'll also post here to disagree. Of course it is not about the banner image. It is about functionality and good design; you seem to be mistaking consistency for intuitiveness. A metro-style WP app could be every bit as intuitive and easy to use without mimicking the iOS and Android app designs. If apps look the same across platforms then WP gives up an opportunity to differentiate itself through UI design.

I think it is more important to have consistency within an OS (and across apps within that OS) than it is have a single app look the same across different operating systems. Is a WP user more likely to use multiple apps on his/her phone, or to use the same app across WP and iOS/Android?

 

[Narse77]

Much much better but it still does the one thing that drives me nuts. If I view a post on my news feed and back out back to the news feed it refreshes and goes all the way back to the top. Drives me crazy.

 

[bozza72]

Mines so slow to load the news feed, i sometimes have to change the setting newsfeed top stories or most recent to get it to load my news feed ( still waiting for it to load) is this just mine or is it really this slow ???

 

[sandmanfvr]

Loads fast for me. I can't like or post to stuff put directly on my timeline and I can't do tags or reshare alot. I just keep reporting the bugs.

 

[bozza72]

I just keep reporting the bugs

how do you report bugs ??

 

[sandmanfvr]

Go to settings, then about and hit feedback. The email is big and gets slow sometime (they attach the logs) but worth typing this stuff up and sending them the logs.

 

[ttsoldier]

Just got three toast notifications in sync with Facebook