Facebook Mobile Was Most Downloaded App Of 2012

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Facebook MobileFacebook surpassed Google Maps in 2012 to become the most downloaded app of the year among iOS and Google Android users in the United States.

According to comScore supplied data the Facebook app also managed to win in terms of time users spent using its mobile apps. According to the report 23 percent of a mobile users time was spent on Facebook.

Facebook has long been a favorite app in terms of engagement and 2012 was no different.

While Mark Zuckerberg and team led the mobile download sector, Google still scored five out of the six most downloaded apps thanks to Google Maps, Google Play, app hub for Android, Google Search, Gmail and YouTube.  [Read more…]

Facebook Adds Photo Filters To iOS Mobile App

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Facebook Photo FiltersThe battle of the mobile photo filter apps is under way! Yesterday it was revealed that Twitter was secretly working on an Instagram competitor and now Facebook has launched a filter program of its own.

Fresh off the heels of its Instagram acquisition the world’s largest social media network has delivered photo filters for Facebook mobile users.

The new iOS update adds Instagram-style filters to Facebook photos as users choose to use them. Pictures uploaded to an Apple-powered device are automatically eligible to use the filters.

To use the program users simple choose a photo to upload and then tap the wand icon. 13 different filters are include, among them are: contrast, cool, coffee, neon, b&w. and more. [Read more…]

Facebook Begins Rolling Out Timeline For Mobile Pages

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Facebook TimelineFacebook on Friday started rolling out Timeline pages for the mobile version of Facebook, four months after the company debuted the interface for Facebook.com

The new output was discovered by Inside Facebook but has not rolled out to all users at this time. Typically when Facebook rolls out a new feature it beta tests changes for a small subset of users then pushes the change to all of its 900+ million users over a short time period.

The new design includes the page’s cover photo, added About section information and even new icons for a page’s photos, fan base details, etc.

Mobile users will also notice a larger “Like” button that spans across the width of the screen. Pages with a “message” button however have a smaller like button.

By adding a cover photo and page descriptions to mobile output users are expected to gather a more clear understanding of what a page is about, while the larger Like button Facebook believes will lead to higher engagement rates and ultimately better mobile device revenues.  [Read more…]

Facebook Promises Much Faster iOS Speeds, Upgrade Likely For Late Summer

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If you access Facebook from an Apple iOS based device you are likely well aware of the horrendous speed at which the app operates. Now following thousands of user complaints the worlds largest social network has promised to speed up the platform.

Several anonymous Facebook engineers came forward on Wednesday to reveal that Facebook is completely overhauling the mobile app to be optimized for speed, noting that the mobile version which earns 2.5 times as much as the Facebook.com web platform will be ready by this summer.

The new platform for iOS based devices is being built using the Objective-C coding language instead of HTML5 for which the current application is built. Essentially the new version will take advantage of the iPhone’s hardware instead of rending most parts of the app as a webpage as it currently does.  [Read more…]

Facebook Smartphone Coming In 2013 [Report]

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Facebook SmartphoneFacebook hasn’t had the best luck with mobile advertising attempts and now it appears the company may be hedging its mobile bets on a new Facebook smartphone that could be released by early 2013.

According to a recent report the smartphone would be Facebook’s third attempt at creating a viable consumer smartphone that deeply integrates the social networks platform.

Rumors about a Facebook smartphone began in 2010 but those sources soon revealed that “development complications” led Facebook to abandon the project. Eventually AllThingsD reported that HTC and Facebook were working on a Facebook integrated smartphone with the code name “Buffy” which may still be in the development stages.  [Read more…]

Facebook Ads To Begin Showing Up On Mobile Apps In Next Few Months

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Facebook Mobile AdsWith hundreds of millions of Facebook users now engaging on the social network through the use of Android, iPhone and iPad apps it was only a matter of time before the company began serving ads to those platforms and that time now appears to be as early as March.

Sources close to the world’s largest social network say executives at Facebook have already discussed proposed advertising plans with advertising agencies and plan to offer paid “Featured stories” in mobile news feeds as a way to supplement ad space on smaller mobile device displays.

By mixing in sponsored ads with friends feeds users don’t lose screen space and only receive ads that match their interests and the interests of their friends.

Facebook has estimated that almost half of its 845 million users access the network via mobile devices, even one ad served per user per day would mean billions of new ad impressions for the network.  [Read more…]

Facebook Messenger Aims To Take On Text Messaging, Could Actually Win

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Facebook Dedicated Messaging App

Facebook on Tuesday debuted Facebook Messaging, a dedicated mobile platform for iPhone and Android devices that allows users to easily and efficiently communicate with their friends.

The program is a standalone application that allows Facebook users to send text messages between phones, while storing their conversations in a user’s messaging center for easy access both from their smartphone and from their Facebook page.

The program also rolls out group texting, allowing users to choose which Facebook contacts they want to contact while sending all of those users text messages at the same time, a perfect option for a night out on the town, party planning or possibly even for business use while out in the field.

The application was helped along by Facebook’s acquisition of Beluga, a mobile-based company that separated users into “pods” which would share text messages and images.  [Read more…]

Two HTC Smartphones Receive Dedicated Facebook Buttons

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HTC Salsa and ChaCha with Dedicated Facebook Buttons - Small Demo SizeMobile World Congress in Barcelona kicked off this week and one of the coolest new features announced were two Android based Smartphones from manufacturer HTC. While the phones themselves are standard setups (one full touchscreen, one touchscreen with qwerty keypad) what sets them apart are dedicated Facebook buttons along the bottom of their displays/keypads.

The two phones, the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa are both mid-range phones with Android Gingerbread, featuring 600MHz CPU’s and 521MB RAM, with the ChaCha featuring the full QWERTY keyboard. However what sets them apart is the dedicated Facebook button which allows users to now share the music they are listening or the app they are using with their Facebook brethren using a simple one click button solution.

According to HTC C.E.O. Peter Chou, after clicking the button a status field will appear at which time the Facebook user can enter a message and share their finds. [Read more…]

Facebook Updates Android App, Adds Deals, Fixes Bugs

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Facebook Deals On AndroidGoogle Android users will be happy to learn that Facebook today released version 1.5.1 of their popular Android app, fixing several bugs found in the last version of the application, while adding Facebook Deals into the mix.

Users who check into locations around the U.S. will now see a yellow icon if that particular location is offering any deals through the program. At this time only U.S. locations are part of the Facebook Deals program.

While the new version promises to fix various bugs, some users on varying Android systems are now complaining that new bugs have been found, while some old bugs are still not fixed on their systems. Bug related issues appears to vary based on the version of Android in use.

Head over to the Android Market to download the new version of the application and give it a try.