Facebook apps slowly turning into true UWP?

DavidTheGiant

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Along with Facebook and Twitter and instagram.. After updating Messenger beta for Windows 10 PC it can now look "mobile friendly" mode if the window is resized to look more mobile friendly. ( unlike before the edges will be cut if you resize it to look like mobile mode )

Now makes me think these facebook apps are slowly turning into True UWP apps that's suitable for all screen sizes unlike now we have two separate apps for PC and mobile.

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snikito

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Facebook (Beta) app is still unable to properly scale to mobile size, however, there is progress towards that. Although personally I've given up on Facebook I hope you are true and they are indeed building something like that but I highly doubt it.
 

Drael646464

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Along with Facebook and Twitter and instagram.. After updating Messenger beta for Windows 10 PC it can now look "mobile friendly" mode if the window is resized to look more mobile friendly. ( unlike before the edges will be cut if you resize it to look like mobile mode )

Now makes me think these facebook apps are slowly turning into True UWP apps that's suitable for all screen sizes unlike now we have two separate apps for PC and mobile.

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I didn't even know there were separate apps. Seems a bit silly. FB on my tablet is just fine.

Good thing they are unifying it, only makes sense!
 

snikito

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There is no proof they are unifying it, it's only the OP's opinion. In fact, Facebook doesn't even mention Windows Mobile on the available platforms for their apps.
 

Drael646464

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Well I can't say if its new or not, but in FB I see at least another adaptive size catergory there, where it drops the side icons. Definitely a useless move on a tablet unless your split screening. Twitter does the same.

Messenger on my tablet doesn't. What you have there screenshotted, my messenger doesn't do.

Confusion I have, is when you go into the FB or twitter app in the store, the same app I have installed on desktop and tablet, shows it can exist on mobile. Same with messenger.

So aren't the standard apps, true UWP already? (Perhaps with the exception of the scaling of messenger?)

What's this business about there being separate apps for mobile and desktop?
 

snikito

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Messenger can't do it yet. The update is for Messenger (Beta) for the moment and it does it fine on my tablet.

It says it's the same app in the store but it isn't. You can tell that by the version number, the PC/Tablet apps are way ahead in version number than the mobile ones.
 

Drael646464

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Messenger can't do it yet. The update is for Messenger (Beta) for the moment and it does it fine on my tablet.

It says it's the same app in the store but it isn't. You can tell that by the version number, the PC/Tablet apps are way ahead in version number than the mobile ones.

Ah well, if that's the case, the introduction of adaptive scaling is definitely a standard move in creating a UWP.

Wonder why there's two? Surely the apps can't be centennials (there was never a desktop win32 facebook app or twitter). Given that they must just be two versions UWP interface that haven't been brought together yet. A feature2 type thing. There's no other reason that I think of, why they'd split them.
 

snikito

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They split them so that they can abandon mobile like they have. They haven't updated their mobile apps for more than 6 months while the PC apps get updated all the time.
 

Drael646464

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They split them so that they can abandon mobile like they have. They haven't updated their mobile apps for more than 6 months while the PC apps get updated all the time.

No that makes no sense.

In UWP, - if your app scales UI, its written in UWP compliant code, update that one app, and hey presto, it works on both devices.

With a proper UWP, there is literally zero need to "code for mobile" and this no motive to "abandon mobile". Its the same app, for all platforms - and that scalability doesn't just grant mobile, it grants xbox, IoT core, HoloLens, mixed reality and split screening.

And given this isn't a centennial port, there's no reason there (they would need to still port or switch APIs).

BTW, didn't that guy just say something has changed in one of the beta's? But your saying the mobile versions haven't changed in six months. Which is true?

Does the messenger beta app now scale or not? (It doesn't on my tablet, with the regular version, you have to manually close the friends list)

Also: Is facebook an islandwood port? Could that be the reason for feature2ing mobile, that they are still porting the ios app fully to UWP, perhaps into xamarin?

I can't fully make sense of this two versions thing yet, given the nature of UWP. It must be a partially completed port. A project in progress. Maybe they just have one guy working on it, lol, and all they need to do is right the scaling UI for it.
 

snikito

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What the OP says concerns the PC/Tablet apps. The mobile apps have received no update for more than 6 months. The OP is referring to the PC/Tablet apps. These apps get frequent updates, sometimes multiple times per week. Facebook apps are not universal apps, there are different apps for PC/Tablet and Mobile.

Facebook does not use project Islanwood, it uses facebook's own tool OSMeta.

I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to split the apps but they have done just that, so this leads me to believe that they only did that in order to leave mobile behind, which they have considering the fact that mobile is long way behind and receives no updates.
 
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Drael646464

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What the OP says concerns the PC/Tablet apps. The mobile apps have received no update for more than 6 months. The OP is referring to the PC/Tablet apps. These apps get frequent updates, sometimes multiple times per week. Facebook apps are not universal apps, there are different apps for PC/Tablet and Mobile.

I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to split the apps but they have done just that, so this leads me to believe that they only did that in order to leave mobile behind, which they have considering the fact that mobile is long way behind and receives no updates.

A true UWP app, is updated, updates to every hardware platform it originally supports.

If they aren't true UWA, aren't centennial and are in the store, by process of elimination they must be partially ported ios apps via islandwood.

Which would explain the fragmentation.

If they were originally coded as UWP, there would be only one build stream, and no fragmentation. So they can't have been.

I'm not sure what the process is, when porting islandwood apps. But if they are indeed modifying the beta code, to scale better to smaller screens, that would in fact imply they are intending on using that same code, on smaller screens.

Otherwise - why do it?

Feature2 build streams are often utilized for just such a purpose - to delay features being built in the main stream.

If your hypothesis is correct - why do all the apps, and now, the beta messsnger, on tablets scale to screen sizes that it is completely unnessasary they are able to scale to? Why code it at all?
 

DavidTheGiant

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What the OP says concerns the PC/Tablet apps. The mobile apps have received no update for more than 6 months. The OP is referring to the PC/Tablet apps. These apps get frequent updates, sometimes multiple times per week. Facebook apps are not universal apps, there are different apps for PC/Tablet and Mobile.

Facebook does not use project Islanwood, it uses facebook's own tool OSMeta.

I agree with you that it doesn't make sense to split the apps but they have done just that, so this leads me to believe that they only did that in order to leave mobile behind, which they have considering the fact that mobile is long way behind and receives no updates.


Yes what i mean is the PC/Tablet apps. They get updated frequently like 2 to 3 times a month. The mobile version has no update since then. Last update for Facebook mobile is November 2016 while Messenger is December 2016. The only FB app that gets frequently updated on mobile is Instagram. It got like a lot of updates like 2 times a month. And the good thing is when the mobile app for Instagram got updated the PC/Tablet version of the app will be updated too at the same time so that makes me think that Instagram is a true UWP app.

I'm not losing hope that FB will still update the mobile apps. Maybe making this PC/Tablet app scalable is a start of unifying it for a more UWP experience. But we'll never know haha let's just wait for the upcoming months if there are changes in their apps. Instagram is really doing well both PC and mobile tho that's why i love the Instagram team for keeping the mobile app up-to-date too.
 

snikito

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Do not forget WhatsApp, this is another FB app that gets updated ultra frequently on mobile, on a daily basis if you have the beta version.

It is not completely unnecessary to scale. Facebook and Messenger apps broke when you scaled it on large screen. If you have a large display try to make Facebook full screen and it will break. The updated beta apps do not break when this happens. So they just fixed that by making it scale properly.

They are definitely not Islandwood ports, they are OSMeta ports, you can see that in the source code.

I believe they have abandoned us but this is only my opinion, I have no insights on what FB is doing.
 

DavidTheGiant

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Originally posted by snikito
Do not forget WhatsApp, this is another FB app that gets updated ultra frequently on mobile, on a daily basis if you have the beta version.

They are definitely not Islandwood ports, they are OSMeta ports, you can see that in the source code.

I believe they have abandoned us but this is only my opinion, I have no insights on what FB is doing.


I still don't believe that they abandoned the mobile users. And besides that, they activated the app reviews again for the mobile version again which they deactivated last year to prevent us from reviewing the mobile versions of the app. Maybe their open for suggestions now. Let's review and beg for updates haha 😂
 

snikito

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Nope, Facebook still has the 2GB Requirement. It's Microsoft that allowed us to review the app. With the latest Store update we can rate apps that we own even if we do not meet the minimum requirements set by the dev.
 

kaktus1389

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Well it's been happening for some time now - I realized that when FB app got a working and fresh UI when I was using it in Continuum mode, though there are some issues with margins of pictures and infinite loading circles on the side, but I hope they are going to update it and fix those issues.

I hope they take on more UWP-ish design language, but I know that's not very likely.
 

Drael646464

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Do not forget WhatsApp, this is another FB app that gets updated ultra frequently on mobile, on a daily basis if you have the beta version.

It is not completely unnecessary to scale. Facebook and Messenger apps broke when you scaled it on large screen. If you have a large display try to make Facebook full screen and it will break. The updated beta apps do not break when this happens. So they just fixed that by making it scale properly.

They are definitely not Islandwood ports, they are OSMeta ports, you can see that in the source code.

I believe they have abandoned us but this is only my opinion, I have no insights on what FB is doing.

What's OSMeta, and how is that bridged to UWP?
 

Sedp23

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Hope they get it together before i jump to android. Facebook is part of the reason I'm leaving

Sent from Idol 4s
 

Sedp23

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Haha me too. I still have hope now that facebook made this messenger beta for PC scalable as mobile friendly.
I have slight hope but i should have a few extra bucks next month I'm just gonna grab either a mid range or high end android, and just keep my Idol 4s to see what's going on with Windows

Sent from Idol 4s
 

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