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Facebook was updated in the Google Play Store today, and while it adds a new hand-dandy messaging feature, another one might rub a few users the wrong way. First up, is a new way to message your friends by adding them to existing group convos, or creating completely new ones. That should help those chatty Facebook users out there.
Next up is the addition of new Messenger and Camera icon/shortcuts that will auto-magically populate your app drawer after updating. Fun for the casual Android user, but pain in the butt for those of us who don’t look so favorably upon app icon spam. You can find the updated Facebook version 1.9 right now in the Google Play Store.
Yeah I didn’t appreciate the extra icons. I am having a hard time understanding why someone made the call to give us a camera icon? I can share a picture just as fast with my default camera, or in the gallery by hitting share and selecting facebook.
What a-hole came up with the idea to add extra stupid cam and chat icons??
I never realized the screen shot ability on the gnex captured the buttons as well. Gross.
Interesting. But what’s up with the search button? I thought they left that in a different spot for ICS..
It’s a custom ROM. They let you choose what button you want down there. To be honest, I think that’s one of the great things about the GNex. You can choose what buttons you have.
Mine has Search, Home, and Back. And on either sidean ‘invisible’ Menu button. CodeName Android ROM.
Um, they’re drawn on to the screen ! Lol.
there is still no share button on the wall.. i want the share button.. not the camera… lol..
since instagram released, im less into fb now.
Same here :-) the updates never make facebook apps faster.
official facebook app is one of those android malware appz with permissions list as long as china’s wall…
that’s why I’m glad Phandroid server had an article about fast-facebook – a neat and lightweight alternative with almost no permissions requirements – and is sufficient to check facebook messages & such, unless you literally live on facebook and never run a browser on your PC to do other stuff…
facebook is a spyware company already, not give them any more data (just run wireshark) unless you really need to…
LOL!
Ya because fast facebook doesn’t ask for a ton of permissions when it asks you to login to facebook
It’s not malware btw [moderated].
[User has been banned]
I actually like it.
Well I think this feature is really beneficial for both technology users
Facebook is getting worse by day…
Hands down Friendcaster the best FB app. It sometimes goes down then revives itself. But worth it blows away FB for Android.
The dark background for everything is pleasing on the eyes….
I wish I could dump the official FB app for good, and Friendcaster Pro is probably the closest I’ve got to being able to do so. But it still lacks in some areas – it doesn’t show me every update from my friends, and I can’t work out why that is. So I have to keep the regular FB ap around :-/
I wish FB would just fix the goddamned thing. The FB Messenger app is great – stable, does what it’s supposed to do, push notifications work. I don’t get why the FB devs can put out that, which is great, and the FB app which is complete sh*t.
Are they ever going to update the app so i can open a contact on my GNex and see that person’s status updates, etc within the contact card??? It shouldn’t be that difficult.
Google disables this in the OS. The app they distribute is the same to all Android phones but Google disables the package name from allowing sync.
To add a little bit to the response you’ve gotten… it’s disabled in 4.0.2… but re-enabled on 4.0.3 and 4.0.4….. so just wait for Verizon to allow the thing to be updated and you’ll be golden……………… if Verizon allows it to be updated.
Gotcha, I did not know that. I thought Facebook was slacking since clearly the LinkedIn info works in the contact cards in 4.0.2.
Dunno if you’ve seen it before but there is an app called haxsync in the play store that allows you to do this with the contact card. It also downloads higher res contact pictures from facebook which look good in the contact app in ics. It’s a paid app but worth it!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mots.haxsync
Adds 2 icons to your asp draw… AND??
Not a fan of icon spam. Defitnitly not upgrading. Unless it comes with significanr speed boosts,it aint worth it. Or fast facebook needs to update its ui and fix the bugs quickly.
It’s not any faster at all. Don’t bother, you’re not missing out on anything.
Lol Okay…then I will continue to hope that all non-crazy people move over to G+ fast
I also want a share button. Duh fb!!! It’s on the website, it should be on the app.
I can understand messaging but there is no point in the Camera icon as you can instantly share to Facebook from the stock camera app. Now every user has two camera icons which is confusing.
You can’t tag people from the galaxy S2 so this new camera adds ability to tag.
Chris if you took the time to actually do a second of research and reporting you would find that this new camera shortcut gives us galaxy S2 users the ability to tag people in photos.
Hey, Mr. Attitude. The camera icon doesn’t give users anything. Just an shortcut that takes users to a function already inside the Facebook app.
You don’t need the shortcut to do any of that. You can simply click the camera icon already inside the Facebook app when you update your status and do it from there.
I was pissed as soon as I updated. A camera app that looks almost like the android camera app.. other icons too. And to boot, it shows “facebook” for a while before it’ll actually show facebook. Definitely giving it a one star.
Why do I need another messaging icon! This is so annoying, especially because i actually love using the stand alone FB Messaging app – it just works better!
Terrible update, I don’t even have the option to hide the two extra icons on my DROID RAZR. Why would they do this
switched to friendcaster, can’t stand the Facebook app
Can I copy and paste in the app yet? No? Damnitt.
I hate the new version just updated to version 1.9. How do i go offline with this new version as there is no offline button! Please help :)
Overall it works much better now on my Galaxy Note LTE.
I’ve uninstalled the official FB app and switched over to Fast Facebook – only because of the icon spam.