Facebook has updated its applications for Android and Apple mobile devices. This long-awaited step was almost an obligation given that the users of both platforms were always very dissatisfied with the user experience offered by the application of the social network. The complaints were always around loading times, the decrease in functions of the app compared to the web and that, in the case of Android, the app was constantly hanging. Let's see to what extent they have alleviated these problems.
In both cases, Facebook claims that it has improved speed of the application as well as its smoothness. Well this is especially true in the iOS app it has doubled its speed. Facebook has abandoned the use of HTML5 for development of this update and decided to use Apple's native code, SDK, for better integration. Both iOS and Android have not yet solved their problems of adapting to HTML5, particularly in uploading photos and animations. On the contrary, HTML5 has remained in the Android application which, although it has improved, is considerably slower than the one that iPad and iPhone users will be able to enjoy.
The Facebook application for iOS has greatly improved notifications. To do this, it has created a banner that, without needing to refresh, shows you the stories with greater speed and is renewed when a new story arrives. And you can also access specific notifications with greater speed to make comments. Photos also open faster and close easily.
The Facebook application for Android has focused precisely on the weakest point of your HTML5 code, the photo upload. We can upload several photos by selecting them from the gallery directly with a button specially designed for it. While uploading, if the bandwidth allows it, we can continue browsing the application.
There are a couple of details that are not in the iOS app but are in the Android app and that alleviate the difference in speed a bit. One is the possibility to include emoticons and photos in comments, features that were in the Facebook Messenger application. The other detail is the possibility of create events from the application itself and configure them with all the data and invite your contacts.
Still, the app is still pretty slow and hangs from time to time.
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