Why there is no official Facebook app on windows phone?

[Singhonline]

Why Microsoft developing the app that should be developed by Facebook?

 

[a5cent]

You misunderstand the term "official". This is the official FB app. The official app is made by whomever FB endorses to make it, in this case MS.
I'm guessing the main reason is money. It's not a cheap app to build and support/evolve, and in some places it integrates directly with the OS (contacts, in earlier builds also messaging, etc). Why not let MS make it?

 

[Singhonline]

Its good that Microsoft provided it but I was thinking that why fb itself not providing it, although they develop it for desktop version.

 

[Pete]

Way back in the mists of time, Facebook contacts were integrated into the People hub more closely than it is now. I guess that in order to help that happen, the Facebook app needed to use private API methods, which were better used by the Microsoft app development team.

I don't know this for sure, but it seems a reasonable theory to me.

So Microsoft got the rights to create Facebook app on Windows Phone. At the same time, Microsoft embedded Bing into Facebook (Facebook searches (and probably a few internals) are powered by Bing).

This collaboration also resulted in the Facebook 'f' logo and contact placeholder icons being baked into the People app (regardless of whether people use Facebook or not).

 

[a5cent]

There is no such thing as a desktop facebook app. It's web application that runs on every browser and is OS agnostic
Like I said, the answer is OS integration (which MS wants or at least once wanted, but FB can't do as easily nor has much reason to) and development costs, although I'm just guessing about the later.

 

[colinkiama]

Way back in the mists of time, Facebook contacts were integrated into the People hub more closely than it is now. I guess that in order to help that happen, the Facebook app needed to use private API methods, which were better used by the Microsoft app development team.

I don't know this for sure, but it seems a reasonable theory to me.

So Microsoft got the rights to create Facebook app on Windows Phone. At the same time, Microsoft embedded Bing into Facebook (Facebook searches (and probably a few internals) are powered by Bing).

This collaboration also resulted in the Facebook 'f' logo and contact placeholder icons being baked into the People app (regardless of whether people use Facebook or not).

Tbh, Microsoft shouldn't be developing the app anymore. Twitter can access the people hub too. Why aren't Microsoft giving the tools to Facebook instead. If they did thin the beginning, we wouldn't be missing out on features such as Facebook trends, news articles, apps linking to the Facebook app for game invites, searching for topics, smart search (search for people by city, address, place of work etc). At least we managed to get picture comments (in late 2014). With Windows 10, the APIs give all the developers the same tools Microsoft are allowed to use which means access to parts of the OS like the people hub, phone, calendar, Cortana interests, Xbox, accounts, emails etc. Just look at the ratings and reviews in the store. Microsoft shouldn't develop the app anymore. Facebook should.

 

[vsmh96]

From what i gathered (chatting with Lumia phone support) FB is only published by MS and is not developed by them. It also had to be one of the most badly or poorly made apps (even though i cannot code). Months and months and months of silly updates that still dont fix fundamental things is ridiculous, not to mention the ignorance of emails, and MS's slow action in doing what they need to.

 

[Maaz Mansori]

I think the reference to the desktop app is referring to the Windows 8.1 store app. It's really supposed to be a tablet app but will run on a desktop computer, and in Windows 10 it will run in windowed mode, similar to a desktop app. It supports a variety of notifications but does not have the same integration to your contacts in the People hub and calendar the Windows Phone version does. Microsoft used to integrate these with your Microsoft/Hotmail account instead which allowed the integration to work in Windows 8, Windows Phone 8.0, and the web (outlook.com). This integration is no longer functional as of about 4 weeks ago due to Facebook API changes. Windows Phone 8.1 uses Social Extensibility Framework from the Facebook app for the integration to work. This is something that Facebook themselves likely don't want to be involved with at this time. Although Facebook does not currently publish the Windows Phone app, they have assisted Microsoft with some of its development and they recognize it as an official app.

 

[paulxxwall]

Yes WP facebook is really bad I keep getting the same post or ones from yesterday over and over again. Its getting really old

 

[Singhonline]

Notifications opening in browser,pages not working well,it is a very bad app

 

[Singhonline]

No untag option

 

[colinkiama]

From what i gathered (chatting with Lumia phone support) FB is only published by MS and is not developed by them. It also had to be one of the most badly or poorly made apps (even though i cannot code). Months and months and months of silly updates that still dont fix fundamental things is ridiculous, not to mention the ignorance of emails, and MS's slow action in doing what they need to.

That probably explains why even the old s40 phones have more features in their Facebook app than ours.

 

[stevemind]

Well........i like it, and that's all i care

 

[Singhonline]

That probably explains why even the old s40 phones have more features in their Facebook app then ours.

S40 fb has more options than this.

 

[Kram Sacul]

I'm still not sure why they don't port the Android and iOS Facebook apps to WP. I thought that was one of the big things you can do the new developer tools or whatever it was MS talked about recently. I guess again we're waiting for Windows 10 to save us.

 

[heickelrrx]

I'm not sure why you guys call the apps were bad or something. I think they run pretty good. Facebook gave me notification in real time (which sometime annoy me) same goes with twitter.

Yes they both lack of feature but reliable and run well.

Don't know about yours but I'm happy with mine

 

[Jazmac]

Here we go again.

 

[vsmh96]

I'm still not sure why they don't port the Android and iOS Facebook apps to WP. I thought that was one of the big things you can do the new developer tools or whatever it was MS talked about recently. I guess again we're waiting for Windows 10 to save us.

PProbably because its not available yet.

 

[vsmh96]

Here we go again.

Could you elaborate?

 

[vsmh96]

I'm not sure why you guys call the apps were bad or something. I think they run pretty good. Facebook gave me notification in real time (which sometime annoy me) same goes with twitter.

Yes they both lack of feature but reliable and run well.

Don't know about yours but I'm happy with mine

Notifications can be offed, head to settings and tinker around and yes i know what you mean, things like the find more friends message or do you know so and so message...