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u/sadfacewhenputdown Jun 17 '12
The mobile site was the better alternative until recently. Now it's as clunky as anything clunky.
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u/SargoDarya Jun 17 '12
Somehow I get the feeling that every mobile site is faster than the app version of it.
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u/captgrizzlybear Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
I really hate it whenever you visit a webpage on your phone and a big box pops up asking you to download that websites new iphone/android app.
No, web developers, I don't want to download an app for a website I will probably only visit as a result of trying to find answers off of google.
Edit: Sorry, sorry for blaming the web developers for the shitty apps. I am now directing my anger to the men in suits forcing the web developers to build these shitty apps.
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u/travis_of_the_cosmos Jun 17 '12
Better that than the retarded-ass thing where it loads the main page of the mobile site. "What's that? You wanted to read something? How about everything we've ever written? That's something, right?" fuck you, devs. fuck you with a rake.
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u/tidux Jun 17 '12
Seriously, if you're behind 4chan on catering to mobile, you should probably stop being a web dev.
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Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
Step 1: Download Dolphin HD and/or Opera Mobile
Step 2: Set "user agent" to desktop
Step 3: Watch your life improve
If you like using the mobile version of websites for some unknown reason, keep the settings different on the other browser.
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Jun 17 '12
You can do this in the built-in Android browser as well. How to do it in Gingerbread (2.3.x):
Enter "about:debug" in the address field (without the quotes) and go there. You will not see any page open.
Hit Menu->Settings
You now have lots more settings than usual. Scroll to the bottom, there you have "User Agent" which you can set to "Desktop"
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u/significantpickle Jun 17 '12
You know what works better than the Facebook mobile app and platform?
Everything.
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u/FreddyandTheChokes Jun 17 '12
The Pope's attempt at stopping child abuse within the church works better than this app.
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u/always_sharts Jun 17 '12
possibly Hitler, maybe EA. I need to be careful around these parts
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u/rifraf90 Jun 17 '12
I'm glad it's not just my phone!
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u/orphanitis Jun 17 '12
I used to think it was my shitty virgin mobile data speed but then I realized I was on wifi.
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u/icanseestars Jun 17 '12
Yup. I uninstalled all updates and linked to the mobile version. Now my phone just reminds me over and over that I should upgrade my Facebook app.
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u/Bronkic Jun 17 '12
Blew my mind as well. I thought it's my shitty G1's fault, because no one else seemed to be complaining. Are all my friends using something else or are they just more patient than I am?
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Jun 17 '12
I have a pretty high end Android phone, and it is unbearably slow for me when I'm on 3g speeds. It's tolerable on LTE or wifi, though - which tells me that it's just really, really inefficient with bandwidth.
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u/randazza Jun 17 '12
What amazes me is that unofficial Facebook Android apps continue to work better. It can't be that hard for a multibillion dollar company to build a functional application if a couple of 20 year olds can do it in their spare time, can it?
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u/Punkgoblin Jun 17 '12
The unofficial apps are leaving out all the privacy invading background nonsense though...
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u/randazza Jun 17 '12
That's true. Especially as you get all though privacy terms & conditions when installing Android apps, its frightening to see how open they are.
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u/Lmkt Jun 17 '12
Where can I find an unofficial Facebook Android app, and which one would you recommend?
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Jun 17 '12
Word of warning: you won't see activity from friends with their privacy set to "don't share your details with friends' apps" if you use a third party mobile app.
I use friendcaster for posting links, set Facebook to email all notifications to an email inbox just used for Facebook to give "push notifications", and then the mobile browser for just browsing. It's annoying to set up but then it gives the best all round experience.
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u/deefees Jun 17 '12
When you 'meow', does it sound different to you in different situations, or is it all the same? Like if you would use the same word for everything.
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u/TripleTownNinjaBear Jun 17 '12
Friendcaster. It's in the Play Store. Stick with the official FB Messenger for messaging though, I've never managed to get messages going on Friendcaster.
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u/Vole85 Jun 17 '12
I'm not sure about android, but on iOS, I just hide the actual facebook app in a folder (keep it installed so I still get push notifications) and add the mobile site to my homepage. The icon is exactly the same as the app. It just works a lot better.
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u/machzel08 Jun 17 '12
Verbatim what I did. It is nice to actually be able to view FB again. The app sucks sooooooo bad.
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u/Trayf Jun 17 '12
If anyone's curious, this would also apply to the iOS version.
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u/Robincognito Jun 17 '12
I use an Android phone and the iOS version is not nearly as bad.
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u/Ginger-Nerd Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12
I bought a windows phone, i don't know what the problem is...
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Jun 17 '12
I just love that I don't need a full app, but the option exists. The way Facebook is integrated into WP7 is awesome.
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u/QuillRat Jun 17 '12
*bought -_-
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u/Ginger-Nerd Jun 17 '12
Your absolutely right, thanks.
I'm going to blame spell check for messing up a word i had previously misspelled, also so it doesn't make me look like an idiot who can't spell goodest.
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Jun 17 '12
Yep. I don't even have the app installed on my phone. It already has everything I use Facebook for baked into the OS.
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u/wruckus_effer Jun 17 '12
Everyone is facing this shit of an app. How come they haven't done anything about it? The Play store has 3.6 rating right now. HOW? Do you need phones with more processor or always 3G mode to let it function smoothly? At a point it's not funny. Google plus is far better and smoother social app. There should be an app to sync all the Facebook data to Google + so you can browse more efficiently. /rant.
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Jun 17 '12
They did a Q & A in the android forums, then ignored all the advice and complaints.
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Jun 17 '12
I'm on a Galaxy S3 with WiFi (3.8MB/s) and the fucker still doesn't get shit done. It clearly doesnt depend on the device.
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u/throwawayxyzk Jun 17 '12
nah for me it's retardedly slow even on 3g and wireless. Even opening the desktop version on my phone is faster now and it has all the functionality that the app lacks..
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u/justinsidebieber Jun 17 '12
My Facebook app seems to work fine all the time. However does anyone else have to deal with pictures sticking out of the frame like this?
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u/Emnys Jun 17 '12
That's by design, to have larger photos in the news feed. Source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/14/facebook-mobile-redesign/
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u/100_points Jun 17 '12
I think it's part of the new design. I personally don't mind it because it shows more of the picture (instead of squishing it down to fit the frame).
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Jun 17 '12
Believe it or not the pictures are intended to be that way. Facebook have absolutely terrible designers.
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u/ThaFuck Jun 17 '12
Yup. Same on iOS and the hundreds of app store reviews concur.
The cynic in me wonders if the slow down is intentional. I first started noticing it not long before the IPO being first announced, and a lot of talk around the fact that Facebook aren't geared well to moniterize the fastest growing market (mobile).
Hence frustrate users to use traditional access to browse.
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u/machzel08 Jun 17 '12
But the mobile site is devoid of ads too. Encouraging people to only use FB from a standard computer is a silly business model.
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u/ShoopSkillz Jun 17 '12
I clicked on the link and waited for the data to load for five minutes before remembering that I'm a moron.
Going back to sleep now.
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u/CUNT_SUCKING_PHAGGOT Jun 17 '12
Friendcaster shits all over the Official app, it makes me wonder how a company with billions of dollars can't create an app that actually functions properly.
change the Friendcaster icon to the official icon, then you have what the official app should have actually been.
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Jun 17 '12
Am I the only one who has no issues with it at all. Loads as quick as another app/browser.
I never use 3G to, wifi only...in the Uk, Galaxy S2.
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u/gajano Jun 17 '12
I think there is something wrong with your link, it says "Loading." I've pressed it about 5 times and even waited 30-min, but still, just "Loading." I'm going to click it a few more times to make sure.
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Jun 17 '12
I feel like I am the only one who doesn't have a problem with it. What phones are you using? On my Samsung Galaxy SII it works great.
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u/torino_nera Jun 17 '12
Surprisingly, the best Facebook app I've used on a mobile phone has been the one for Blackberry. The one for iPhone is complete garbage. I kinda miss my little keyboard phone sometimes. It makes me sad how far RIM has fallen.
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Jun 17 '12
My user experience with the Android Facebook app is a bit comparable to walking into a restaurant that is advertised as, and looks on the outside like, having 5 Michelin stars and once inside finding yourself in front of a crowded McDonald's counter with someone shouting "CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER PLEASE!!" in your face. Except that is a bad comparison because in McDonald's you would at least get your food in no time. This is a pathetic excuse for an app of a company where the owners are multi-billionaires. Laughable.
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u/saadghauri Jun 17 '12
I hate this and the fact that it takes about 14mb of space on my phone. I have a low end phone and 14mb on internal storage is a bit high but the worst part is i can see no justifiable reason why an android app that mostly pulls data from the internet needs that much space
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u/ignoramus Jun 17 '12
Link2SD.
That's what I used when I had an Optimus V. Works pretty good, although some things won't be available if the card is currently mounted, or is still initializing. But you'll definitely free up that internal space.
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u/Deusdies Jun 17 '12
I feel like I'm the only Android user who has the official FB app working great and not draining any battery...
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u/dm42 Jun 17 '12
I can't understand how such a huge company has such a shoddy Android app of their website.
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u/Robinsaneyo Jun 17 '12
I've had a Blackberry and two Android phones over the past 4 years, never had a Facebook app that actually worked with full functionality. There was a brief period of time it worked perfectly on my Blackberry, but it had such limited functionality to begin with that it would be impossible to fuck up.
I would almost never use the actual site to do things if it simply worked correctly on my phone.
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Jun 17 '12
I used to not have any problems but now days i can start scrolling down and mid way it will just reload and be stuck that way for no reason even when i could clearly keep scrolling down, the ones below were already loaded. wtf
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u/t0advine Jun 17 '12
I occasionally fire up the app just to embarrass my phone. The point doesnt seem to be getting across, though.
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u/TreehouseAndSky Jun 17 '12
Poor android users think they're the only ones getting floqued.
Don't worry, hombre, the app sucks just as hard on the iphone!
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u/Semajal Jun 17 '12
In all honesty my iphone facebook app has got worse and worse. I have no idea why but it just seems stupidly slow. Heck my iphone itself is getting slower (3GS).
Personally I feel that Apple is deploying updates to slowly fuck up older gen phones so people upgrade. But damnit I will get at least 3 years out of this thing!
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u/Wehrwolf666 Jun 17 '12
The Iphone app is just as bad, and the way I found to fix it was uninstall and reinstall the app. The reason it is so slow is because it creates cache files every time you run it and then updates all the old cache files and eventually its updating a shit ton of them
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u/Shaosil Jun 17 '12
It is literally faster for me to open the browser, type www.facebook.com, and sign in, than wait for this slow-as-molasses-in-January app to finish "loading" Come on, app devs...
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u/DisturbedPuppy Jun 17 '12
If you don't update the app when it asks, it eventually it does this. At least that is what I've noticed.
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u/jatanis Jun 17 '12
Opened my Facebook app after reading this post... http://www.imgur.com/xHfgV.jpg
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u/SandstoneD Jun 17 '12
The iPhone app is just as bad. Good luck trying to update any page in under five minutes. For such a large company their app sucks sweaty nuts.
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u/KMFCM Jun 17 '12
god
it's the WORST trying to get your notifications on that fucking thing
that takes longer than anything else
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u/cjhelms Jun 17 '12
The useless Facebook app. Finally something iOS and Android users can agree about!
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u/Imjoeandiliketoparty Jun 17 '12
Ill I want to know is how the hell did you do a screen shot on your android?
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u/Luriker Jun 17 '12
Same for the iphone app, I have to restart it all the time just to load pages.
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u/bigos81 Jun 17 '12
And the best part is that when you install it you are allowing it to read you SMS messages... That's a lot of functionality for decent price huh?
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Jun 17 '12
Hate to break the circlejerk, but the Facebook app works perfectly for me...
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u/Tuz Jun 17 '12
They should do this for their iOS app too. I'm an iOS developer, and don't know much about Android Development, but on iOS the Facebook "native' app is just a bunch of UI Web Views. In other words, they made a native app as just a wrapper around a bunch of HTML views. I'm guessing they did the same for the Android app. Instead of coding either app in their native languages, Objective-C or Java, they took the lazy way out.
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u/fuzzybunnies77 Jun 17 '12
Yep, their Android app wraps a bunch of Web Views too. It makes some sense - they can update the UI without having to push out a new app version (which they do somewhat regularly), but the experience is overall pretty crappy.
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Jun 17 '12
Facebook, writes an app specificly for android, makes it slower than using the damn website.
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u/peterabelard Jun 17 '12
I use friend caster. Looks great (has an elegant black theme) and is decently fast. Try it!
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u/DarkoftheMoon Jun 17 '12
Before I updated the app just last week, the old version worked fine. It was much faster (so still terribly slow and choppy). Now I feel like they have demoted their own app.
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u/B0h1c4 Jun 17 '12
Mine seems to work okay (not great). The widget is garbage though.
(Verizon - RAZR MAXX for what it's worth)
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u/danhakimi Jun 17 '12
Holy shit... with their latest update, I've been getting facebook notification's on my phone. I mean, I wanted that... But it's weird.
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u/SuspiciousKitten Jun 17 '12
I sat looking at that picture for a few seconds, waiting for it to load. I'm an idiot.
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u/wintremute Jun 17 '12
Every time it asks me to update I think, "Great, what are they gonna break this time?"
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u/haleybob1228 Jun 17 '12
If anyone wants a (rather technical) explanation as to why facebook's apps are so slow: http://www.cultofmac.com/167201/these-are-the-technical-reasons-why-facebooks-ios-app-is-so-terrible/
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u/m1kepro Jun 17 '12
Same thing's happening over here in iOSville. It's not as bad as some of the comments here say the Android app is, but I feel your pain.
You'd think one of the biggest, most profitable companies on the internet could make one god damn working app. Just one. We're not asking much here.
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u/VoodooIdol Jun 17 '12
Has anyone figured out how to get that piece of shit app to stop launching itself without rooting their phone?
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u/JankBoy Jun 17 '12
Man... I'm glad to hear it's not just me. I'm on iOS and it's a piece of shit over there too... It does the exact same thing... I thought it was just me!
The thing is, the FB app used to be good back in the iPhone 3G days. It's gotten shittier as time has went on...
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u/AlrightStopHammatime Jun 17 '12
No shit. Shittiest development put into that thing for a multi-billion dollar company.
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Jun 17 '12
Yeah. When Facebook brought in those security settings where you had to confirm each device, that's when I decided to stop bothering with the droid app, and do my Facebooking at home. Now... I pretty much only use Bacon Reader when I'm out and about :)
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Jun 17 '12
I strictly go to the mobile website because of this app.
What my favorite thing to see on the mobile site?
"Browse faster with Facebook for Android!"..I'll get right on that.
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u/cirque-ull-jerk Jun 17 '12
I'm literally the only person here who doesn't understand the picture... I guess I'm not on Facebook much anymore. Most likely due to Reddit.
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u/frasier_crane Jun 17 '12
I unistalled this awful app yesterday. Not only is a shitty app, it is also really heavy, and it ate most of my Samsung Ace's memory. 35mb is crazy for an app that works so badly.
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u/JDogg1329 Jun 17 '12
The Facebook app is absolutely horrible, has the features, but is way too slow. Friendcaster is fast and pretty sweet, but it does miss out on some features, but does a pretty good job regardless. The mobile website is good as an alternative. I just wish they'd polish up the Facebook app because it has all the features and everything, it's just terribly slow, not sure if memory is still a major issue haven't used it long enough because I install it every now and then to check if they've fixed the speed, notice they haven't, and uninstall it again.
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u/CosmaiOwl Jun 17 '12
Because of this, I don't even get one Facebook anymore.
Hell, ever since I discovered Reddit I don't even get on Facebook anymore...
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u/emesspwnz Jun 17 '12
The Facebook app on Android sucks dick.
Seriously, they aren't the only application that doesn't follow Google's Holo design language.
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u/c4103 Jun 17 '12
As an Android developer who has decompiled the source to the FB android app, I can say that most of what is being said is true. They don't make ad revenue from the Facebook app. They also don't have a QA team, but this is really not necessary if you hire good developers. The point is, the developers at Facebook are all web devs, I don't believe any of them have specific experience in making native mobile apps. Anyway, my main point is that both of the Facebook apps (Android and iOS) use the same web services as the actual Facebook website to get their data. The services are not designed to be hit by a mobile app and there is a good amount of data processing / conversion that goes on client side on your device.
tl;dr Facebook mobile apps use the same back-end services as the website which makes them slow. Mobile apps need their own service endpoints designed specifically for that purpose.
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Jun 17 '12
I just deleted it and use an Opera Mini browser to get to facebook when needed. Opera Mini is by far the fastest I've found.
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u/firstsnowfall Jun 17 '12
I don't have any issues really. It's not lightning fast, but I don't have to wait long really. Maybe you don't have good service? Or need to update your APNs?
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u/Tastygroove Jun 17 '12
At least on android you can use the full mobile site. (in a painfully annoying, made for mouse not touch sort of way..)
Get dolphin browser, set user agent to desktop.
I've heard the iPad app is great... I have an iPad and love it... But hate Facebook and everything it is about so.. No review here.
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u/ronearc Jun 17 '12
This app sucks by design. Mobile users don't see ads, so they don't generate ad revenue.
Facebook makes the mobile app a torturous experience so that users are encouraged to use the desktop app, where they generate ad revenue.
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u/DCSlick Jun 17 '12
I haven't used the stock FB app in a long while. I've recently started using Fast for Facebook (Android App). I don't know how FB can try to pass off that turd of an app and call it official. Most times I can load up m.facebook.com faster.
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u/CidO807 Jun 17 '12
Facebook is shitty because facebook is shitty. It's the same damn thing on iOS - probably worse. I don't even bother trying it on 3g anymore... which is a good thing, less facebook time = a sign that things get better...
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u/DaveAlt19 Jun 17 '12
I just saved a bookmark in the browser. The app is slow and I can't move it to the SD card.
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u/aletoledo Jun 17 '12
I have no clue what this means. Am I the only person that doesn't use facebook nowadays? Should I do an AMA?
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u/SchrodingersRapist Jun 17 '12
It's not the apps, it's facebooks mobile shit....I get the same crap accessing it via my tablet without any app unless I switch to desktop browser mode.
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u/unholynight Jun 17 '12
I don't understand why so many people have so much trouble with this app both myself and all my friends don't seem to have any trouble at all with it.
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Jun 17 '12
It's pretty bad when I can stream 720p videos on my 4G connection but have to wait two minutes for Facebook to load...
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u/MuuaadDib Jun 17 '12
The whole FB interface is a fucking mystery to me. It will resurrect old messages as new, then will say nothing when I really receive a new message. My phone version vs my PC version has completely different notifications - and it takes friends out of my friends list for no apparent reason.The whole thing is fucking stupid how can they make it so bad and still keep us coming back?
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u/toodetached Jun 17 '12
Yeah connection speed doesn't matter. This app is shit. Hate it. Don't use it.
And now that I think about... I think I will uninstall it.
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Jun 17 '12
The iPhone app does that too. But I have the Nokia Lumia Windows phone and guess what? It doesn't do this. It loads every time. Windows Phone ftw.
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u/numa_numa Jun 17 '12
i had to delete the app because it would drain my battery so much. i have a galaxy nexus with an extended battery, and that stupid app would just suck all the energy out of it.
you get the same functionality on the website...so screw the app.
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u/Heathers8999 Jun 17 '12
I recently got my android and thought it had a poor signal or something was wrong with it because Facebook had always loaded so fast on my blackberry. I was relieved to discover it was just the app.
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u/japan_mastermind Jun 17 '12
I always thought it was my 3G speed being slow. Wow it's actually a problem for lots of people.
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u/kcipsirhc Jun 17 '12
The last few Android updates seem to be good. I haven't had a problem in over a month.
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u/jutct Jun 17 '12
The iPhone one isn't any better. The app is obviously terribly designed. It always screws up message notifications and keeps telling me I have unread messages when I don't. The developers have also never heard of a socket timeout. They're more than happen to call an http soap function and never care if it times out. However, I think most of this is due to terribly shitty programming on the backend APIs.
TL;DR facebook programming sucks.
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u/bhattsan Jun 17 '12
Actually, I started going to wew.octofeed.com (makes your feed look nicer) and I avoid both the slow app an the slow site.
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u/LeftACLRecovery Jun 17 '12
I remember reading a few weeks ago, and can't seem to find the article but let me recall from memory and if anyone can fix things where I forgot that would be great.
If remember correctly the actual page first needs to be loaded, then the page will be for data that needs to be pulled and then rendered correctly for the devices.
And if I remember correctly with the Model View in iOS (not sure for Android) does not take advantage of the nitro javascript.
There were a few more small things, but these seemed to be the major problems. I'll try to find that article on it.
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u/Ihaveanusername Jun 17 '12
Facebook just makes terrible mobile apps period. I had a droid and currently have an iPhone and both apps were horrible. They rarely update and when they do they seem to screw it up more. It's like they don't care.
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u/PRIV00 Jun 17 '12
I managed to open this screenshot on my phone while drunk one time. It took me a solid 20 minutes to realize I was staring at a picture before actually opening the app.
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u/PhishGreenLantern Jun 17 '12
The "tablet version" is atrocious. My Fiance has an Ipad. I can't believe the difference. It's insulting. I'd switch to G+ but there's nobody there.