The new home screen in Facebook for iPhone 3.0
The highly anticipated version 3.0 of the Facebook app for iPhone is “coming very soon” according to a Note posted on its official Facebook Page, and will include stacks of new features as well as a complete makeover of the app’s home screen. This will be welcome news for many iPhone owners, who haven’t seen a significant update to the app since September 2008.
“I can’t predict an exact date when I will submit to Apple, but I can say that I am about 98% done,” writes Joe Hewitt, Facebook engineer and sole developer of the application.
The update should finally bring the feature-lagging app up to speed with its web counterpart and will include the following:
- The “new” News Feed
- Ability to “Like” posts
- Events (including the ability to RSVP)
- Notes
- Pages
- Create new photo albums
- Upload photos to any album
- Zoom into photos
- Easier photo tagging
- Profile Pictures albums
- A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
- Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
- Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
- Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
- Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call
The News Feed in Facebook for iPhone 3.0
Noticeably absent is the heavily requested Push Notifications feature, which was introduced with iPhone OS 3.0 and allows 3rd party iPhone apps to send alerts to the user without the app being open. Joe states in his Note that it is in development but will not be seen until version 3.1, to be released “later this summer” (which could mean as late as September 22).
Joe also addressed requests for iPhone 3GS video support in a recent Twitter update: “Only took a few minutes to add 3GS video uploading support to the Facebook app… making it usable will take more time.”
Speaking of the iPhone 3GS, Joe mentioned on his personal blog that when he tested the new Facebook app on it, he saw noticeable improvements in speed over it’s older 3G brother, saying the app ran “fast, smooth, and perfect every time.”
