Official Facebook app abandoned?

[afgzee]

No updates since early December, with no new features since 24th May 2012. This is quite alarming, because since Facebook is one of the most popular apps on all the platforms, you'd think Microsoft would be working hard to get it as much in line with the iOS/Android versions as they could, but seem s like they cannot be bothered, or don't really care.
And the fact that it is missing even the very basic features like delete comments, add friends, delete friends, like pages etc... and is plagued with bugs such as refreshing and moving back to the top of the news feed for months...

Does anyone know what is actually happening?

 

[tk-093]

I'm hoping Facebook is actually working on one. The "official" one is a joke. Third party Facebook apps suck something fierce because they don't have access to the same APIs offical apps or the website has and as such our feeds are full of junk posts that we should never see. touch.facebook.com is the only Facebook to use on a WP.

 

[Jaskys]

The app we got is an official and it's abandoned 1-2 months already
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facebook-for-Windows-Phone/332837726772540

 

[walter1832]

The best one I found for the touch facebook, so far, is FACEBOOK FOR WP8. No ads.

 

[tk-093]

The app we got is an official and it's abandoned 1-2 months already
Facebook for Windows Phone | Facebook

No, it's not official. It's written by Microsoft. They don't have access to the same APIs that apps developed by Facebook have, which is why the news feed is pretty worthless in the app.

 

[Trader05]

The Microsoft app needs to be updated and "standardized" to the current OS's. Maybe the notification center will shed new things to come.

 

[Jaskys]

Well guys we won't get any bones till april, so lets keep waiting...
I would like if people hub would be even more integrated with facebook, cause now it's kidna hard to navigate through it...

 

[KorJax]

Kinda confused here. The peoples hub works perfect for me, I don't need a separate Facebook app considering peoples hub does the exact same thing without needing an app to do it. That's kind of the point of windows phone in a way, is that you don't need apps to do every little thing like you do for iOS.

the only downside (other than the names being way too big compared to the status updates or posts you Facebook contacts make) is it doesn't show private FB messages you get. Which I find is easily solveable by going into Facebook mobile from the browser- it runs really smooth as if it were an app and ironically is actually much better than what the android app gets you..

 

[tk-093]

Kinda confused here. The peoples hub works perfect for me, I don't need a separate Facebook app considering peoples hub does the exact same thing without needing an app to do it. That's kind of the point of windows phone in a way, is that you don't need apps to do every little thing like you do for iOS.

the only downside (other than the names being way too big compared to the status updates or posts you Facebook contacts make) is it doesn't show private FB messages you get. Which I find is easily solveable by going into Facebook mobile from the browser- it runs really smooth as if it were an app and ironically is actually much better than what the android app gets you..

Yeah, not everybody notices the differences, it depends on how your Facebook is configured. Basically in my normal feed I don't have any game requests show up. I've hidden all those requests. The People Hub and the Facebook app do not honor those configurations so when I use the Facebook app or the people hub, it's full of crap that I have hidden away making it 100% worthless to me. The reason for that, I've always read, is that 3rd party apps do not get the same access into Facebook so it can not see those privacy type settings. A lot of people don't take the time to configure Facebook that way so they don't see a difference.

So I totally ignore the People Hub, which is sad, and just use touch.facebook.com for everything.

 

[Ultimateone]

No updates for a couple months equals abandoned? really

 

[KorJax]

Yeah, not everybody notices the differences, it depends on how your Facebook is configured. Basically in my normal feed I don't have any game requests show up. I've hidden all those requests. The People Hub and the Facebook app do not honor those configurations so when I use the Facebook app or the people hub, it's full of crap that I have hidden away making it 100% worthless to me. The reason for that, I've always read, is that 3rd party apps do not get the same access into Facebook so it can not see those privacy type settings. A lot of people don't take the time to configure Facebook that way so they don't see a difference.

So I totally ignore the People Hub, which is sad, and just use touch.facebook.com for everything.

I'm glad I don't have facebook friends that actually use facebook apps or anything then. I think I had one or two that did, but then I just blocked from from ever showing up on my feed and I don't seem to really get their status updates and other stuff showing up on my peoples hub either (if they did, I could simply remove them from the hub). No ideal I know if you happen to be FB friends with someone you want to get updates from but they also happen to like a bunch of useless crap on Facebook :eck:

 

[afgzee]

The app we got is an official and it's abandoned 1-2 months already
Facebook for Windows Phone | Facebook

Yes it was updated in December, but looking at the public change logs, doesn't appear any new features, except a few minor bug fixes were added since 24th May 2012, that's almost 1 year. That is a long time....

 

[rockstarzzz]

I'm glad I don't have facebook friends that actually use facebook apps or anything then. I think I had one or two that did, but then I just blocked from from ever showing up on my feed and I don't seem to really get their status updates and other stuff showing up on my peoples hub either (if they did, I could simply remove them from the hub). No ideal I know if you happen to be FB friends with someone you want to get updates from but they also happen to like a bunch of useless crap on Facebook :eck:

I don't think People Hub or even Facebook app is capable of using first party APIs from Facebook that allow filtering of friends in the feeds, you will still be bombarded with friends who you've chosen to not show in your newsfeed on the website. So if you have 100 friends, 30 are barred from your newsfeed on Facebook.com, will still show all 100 friends' posting in People Hub and Facebook app. I have that main issue which sort of kills the effectiveness of the Hub.

However, the way around it on phone is - creating groups. I've just created groups of people I want to stalk and the pinned huge tile for them on my home. So I have unpinned People Hub now because when something updates for people I really care stalking, my group tile flips and I go to see who did what. Easier than actual filtering on the Facebook app or website really!

edit: of course the limit in groups is 20, so you might need to make more than one group. I have 4 atm.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

Kinda confused here. The peoples hub works perfect for me, I don't need a separate Facebook app considering peoples hub does the exact same thing without needing an app to do it. .

It's fine if you don't need it but 90% of us here do. It's extremely irritating when someone comes in and recommends a frakin mobile website or the people hub.

Both the mobile website and the people hub are an absolute clusterf*ck if you're half serious about using a social network. People hub misses about 95% of Facebook/Twitter features.

 

[rockstarzzz]

It's fine if you don't need it but 90% of us here do. It's extremely irritating when someone comes in and recommends a frakin mobile website or the people hub.

Both the mobile website and the people hub are an absolute clusterf*ck if you're half serious about using a social network. People hub misses about 95% of Facebook/Twitter features.

People hub was never advertised as a Facebook app. It was just integration of core Facebook features i.e. posting, liking, updating, which it does just fine. For power users of course, nothing in Windows Phone is good enough. They need a laptop for that.

 

[ousooner314]

For power users of course, nothing in Windows Phone is good enough. They need a laptop for that.

Or, a Facebook-developed app like those available on Android and iOS.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

People hub was never advertised as a Facebook app. It was just integration of core Facebook features i.e. posting, liking, updating, which it does just fine. For power users of course, nothing in Windows Phone is good enough. They need a laptop for that.

The problem is that Facebook integration is one of the most heavily advertised features of Windows Phone. If it only does about 5% of Facebook then why would they advertise it?

 

[rockstarzzz]

The problem is that Facebook integration is one of the most heavily advertised features of Windows Phone. If it only does about 5% of Facebook then why would they advertise it?

Mostly people prefer Facebook on the web anyway. Facebook integration on top is for normal Facebookers who want to post stuff on Facebook and like/comment other's stuff. That isn't just 5% of Facebook! In integrated way, you can view your newsfeed, comment, like, update status, upload photos, tag in photos, write on friend's wall, chat with Fb friends - that's more than 50% of what any normal person does on Facebook!

 

[TonyDedrick]

Mostly people prefer Facebook on the web anyway. Facebook integration on top is for normal Facebookers who want to post stuff on Facebook and like/comment other's stuff. That isn't just 5% of Facebook! In integrated way, you can view your newsfeed, comment, like, update status, upload photos, tag in photos, write on friend's wall, chat with Fb friends - that's more than 50% of what any normal person does on Facebook!

Well, I wonder if a product of that is due to the apps lacking alot of features and functions of web version.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Well, I wonder if a product of that is due to the apps lacking alot of features and functions of web version.

That link in my earlier post said nothing about WP or BB. However, it was mentioned that users on Android or iPhone might well prefer to be on web than app. The comments underneath from most platforms suggest, even the "best FB apps" on other platforms that other users in this thread have hailed to be much better than WP, doesn't suffice to do what you would usually do on a web browser. Hence, most users choosing to use web browser for Facebook.