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If you didn’t believe the Facebook team wasn’t making nice on its promise to focus more on quality Android development, perhaps their latest acquisition will make you a believer. India-based Little Eye Labs has announced that they have been acquired by the social networking giant for an undisclosed sum (though sources tell TechCrunch that the deal was for anywhere between $10 million and $15 million.
What does Little Eye do? It’s a suite of development tools for developers who want to keep tabs on their apps’ performance, giving them a suite of tools such as resource consumption trends, performance monitors, fine details about events and listeners, detailed reports and even a performance score.
It’s a sensible move for Facebook considering they are often bashed about their app’s poor performance. Even after making the app an all native, non-HTML experience, Facebook for Android could use some vast improvements in these areas.
The company is known to have recently toyed with the idea of using a Holo-based user interface, though they have yet to officially reveal the final product. Several users in the Facebook alpha test have already reportedly seen quick glimpses of the user interface, but their apps were reverted back to the original after they exit and re-enter the app.
We’ve already gotten a bit of an idea of what they can do with Holo thanks to the latest version of the Facebook Messenger. We’re all smiles about that particular app, so getting an overhaul for the full Facebook experience will be welcomed with open arms. Let’s hope they put their newly-acquired tools to good use in the near future by bringing us a Facebook app that doesn’t suck.
[via Little Eye]
I have been a Beta tester since August and to be honest, they haven’t really accomplished much.
They can’t seem to get anything right. They fix bugs only to have the same bug pop up on the next beta release.
I am hoping that they get a good app ready in another 4 or 5 months.
I feel like I haven’t had a complete day unless I see a new Facebook update. “Bug fixes”
Facebook Android development is rapidly approaching Blackberry Messenger Android development as least likely Android news to make a difference in my day. I haven’t used BBM in years and I’m visiting Facebook less and less these days because my friends and family got tired of it. By the time they get it right, I will have long since abandoned it altogether.
Yeah like 3 years after they announced their commitment to Android
I fail to see what’s so damn difficult here. The book on Android has already been written. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, why not just do what works and improve from there. It took Samsung and HTC a short while to embrace their UI’s and functions do why can’t FB? I get it, FB wants/needs their own identity, but they’re going about it all wrong. Hell, Google can make great apps for Apple. (Some even argue that a few of them are better than the Android counterparts.) Why can’t FB just start at Holo and work from there? It sucks, (or does it?) that even with the limited functionality of Friendcaster, it’s my default FB app 2 years later still.
Please. They don’t care about Android. I posted a link to a Google+ picture and it stayed a link. It didn’t even turn to a picture. >=.3
LoL!!
It’s not just performance. The app is all-around confusing and horrible.
I uninstalled the app. Too many permissions required. The last straw: Not interested in sharing my SMS with them just so they can remove one step from phone number verification in the unlikely event that I decide to give them my phone number. The mobile web site works pretty well… in some cases better than the app.