Facebook Planning Significant iOS App Updates as Head Mobile Engineer Returns to Apple

[MacRumors]

Facebook is preparing significant updates for its primary iOS app and its Facebook Messenger app in the near future, reports 9to5Mac. The main Facebook for iOS app will reportedly feature the social network's "Graph Search" feature, which was introduced last year and allows for users to enter specific search queries for better results. Meanwhile, an updated Facebook Messenger app is set to feature iOS contacts integration and sport a look with heavy white space similar to the design aesthetic of iOS 7, with another version similar in looks to the Messages app on iOS also being tested.

The report also states that Greg Novick, who was part of a group of Apple engineers hired by Facebook last year during a recruiting drive to work on its iOS app, has been rehired by Apple for an unstated role. Novick had previously been the Engineering Manager of iPhone Applications and Frameworks at Apple, and was a designer of the software that appeared on the original iPhone.

Both Facebook and Facebook Messenger are free universal apps for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the following links:

- Facebook [Direct Link]
- Facebook Messenger [Direct Link]

Article Link: Facebook Planning Significant iOS App Updates as Head Mobile Engineer Returns to Apple

 

[RoboCop001]

Maybe they'll make it run half-decently on an iPhone 4. But probably not.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Not again... Haven't they futs with it enough?

 

[Northgrove]

I'd be ready to bet money on that the Graph Search feature won't be available on anything but the English version of Facebook for iOS.

 

[abz1981]

Greg Novick is probably coming back because Facebook Home was an epic fail.

 

[CJK]

iOS 7

I don't understand the drive to make every app look exactly like Apple's own apps. So now FB Messenger is going to have tiny, unrecognizable discs for avatars and stretchy, flat message bubbles that fade as you scroll? Seriously? Why??

iOS 7's UI is really a giant step backwards in terms of "at a glance" usability, in my opinion. Hate to see more apps heading in that direction.

 

[ValSalva]

Greg Novick is probably coming back because Facebook Home was an epic fail.

You may be right. It was a huge fail. But FB is making so much money on their mobile ads it may not matter at this point.

 

[room237]

Can we start a pool on how many bugs it will have, that will never be fixed?

 

[abz1981]

Can we start a pool on how many bugs it will have, that will never be fixed?

Do you know if the facebook battery bug has been fixed on IOS 7?

 

[Battlefield Fan]

FB... The necessary evil. Cintas refused to hire a guy because he didn't have a FB profile.

 

[smizzle]

Thank god. Maybe someone at Apple can hold their hands and walk them through making push notifications work, since Facebbok obviously can't figure it out on their own.

 

[rmatthewware]

iOS 7's UI is really a giant step backwards in terms of "at a glance" usability, in my opinion. Hate to see more apps heading in that direction.

I'll have to disagree with you there. While there are some annoying quirks, I find I'm able to get to my needed at a glance info much easier. Especially when it comes to viewing my schedule for that day.

 

[smizzle]

I don't understand the drive to make every app look exactly like Apple's own apps. So now FB Messenger is going to have tiny, unrecognizable discs for avatars and stretchy, flat message bubbles that fade as you scroll? Seriously? Why??

While I agree that making your app white and changing the avatars to circles misses the point of the iOS 7 redesign, it's fair to point out that Facebook had round chatheads before iOS 7...

 

[5t3f4n]

Maybe they'll make it run half-decently on an iPhone 4. But probably not.

There's probably a higher chance of them dropping iPhone 4 support entirely than that happening.

 

[wolfshades]

Not again... Haven't they futs with it enough?

Not really. Not yet anyway (though I couldn't care less about the graph feature). When the iPad/iPhone experience at least mimics the desktop experience, then they'll have done enough. For example: why is it that my only choices to handle my comments when accessing FB on my iPad are copy and delete? Why do I have to go to the web version to edit?

 

[pauliaK]

Both Facebook and Facebook Messenger are free universal apps for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the following links:

Since when Facebook Messenger is an universal app?

 

[sclawis300]

There's probably a higher chance of them dropping iPhone 4 support entirely than that happening.

isn't it linked to the OS? how could they come up with something that runs on ios 7 but not on iphone 4?

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for the sake of my sanity. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make 'most recent' actually be the most recent AND let me keep that selection instead of defaulting back to 'news feed' EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[IJBrekke]

isn't it linked to the OS? how could they come up with something that runs on ios 7 but not on iphone 4?

Oh it will run, it just won't run well. The Facebook app has been incredibly slow on the 4 for quite some time now.

 

[TonyC28]

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for the sake of my sanity. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make 'most recent' actually be the most recent AND let me keep that selection instead of defaulting back to 'news feed' EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree!!! That has to be the most annoying "feature" of the Facebook app. They always talk about algorithms and complicated stuff. How hard can it be to make John Smith's post from 12:01 appear ahead of Jane Johnson's post from 12:00?????
Hopefully they can do some good for the app, but if history has shown us anything it's that they will redesign it and introduce a bunch of new problems.

 

[PsychoLogicXen]

Facebook Home for iOS?!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Not really. Not yet anyway (though I couldn't care less about the graph feature). When the iPad/iPhone experience at least mimics the desktop experience, then they'll have done enough. For example: why is it that my only choices to handle my comments when accessing FB on my iPad are copy and delete? Why do I have to go to the web version to edit?

I guess I've gotten used to all of the UI's looking different... At one point, I couldn't delete posts on the iPad. It was rather inconvenient... Asking for the same functionality, even if the look is different shouldn't be a difficult concept...

 

[mdelvecchio]

Not again... Haven't they futs with it enough?

not until i can comment on every photo separately when doing a batch upload to an album.

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I'll have to disagree with you there. While there are some annoying quirks, I find I'm able to get to my needed at a glance info much easier. Especially when it comes to viewing my schedule for that day.

i agree with him on the decreased at-a-glance usability. the Today screen is nice, but in general things are smaller, thinner/lighter, and harder to scan. perfect example is the Calendar icon -- the very light helvetica is harder to scan and thus takes more time to parse when glancing at the homescreen.

 

[mattdo93]

I still don't see the point of having Messenger when the main Facebook app messages just fine

 

[RoboCop001]

There's probably a higher chance of them dropping iPhone 4 support entirely than that happening.

Probably. I'd love to see the source code though. It must be so unoptimized. That's my guess, anyway. Does it run totally fine on a 4S? Maybe it's meant to run on multi core phones. But it isn't even doing anything complicated. There's no reason they can't be as efficient as possible.

 

[itguy06]

[/COLOR]for the sake of my sanity. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make 'most recent' actually be the most recent AND let me keep that selection instead of defaulting back to 'news feed' EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+1BILLION.

Facebook: I don't care about the news feed one bit. It is useless. I don't care about most commented posts. And when I set it to show me in chronological order, that's what I want to see. Not the BS News Feed that I have to change and then wait forever for your stupid app to reload!!!!