Facebook’s next billion users don’t have smartphones or even the Internet yet, but the Facebook Phone could change that. Through savvy carrier deals, subsidized handsets, and free limited data access, Facebook could ensure emerging markets come online with friend requests as their first experience. That could turn populations of Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America into Facebookers for life. → Read More
Facebook’s new “Home” on Android will debut on a mediocre HTC handset codenamed “Myst” but will be available on standard Android phones, according to an autopsy of a leaked developer build of the Facebook “phone” software scored by Android Police. This aligns with our scoop and predictions from last week about what Facebook will launch at its big press event on Thursday. → Read More
Facebook risked driving users away by showing more ads in the news feed last year, but to Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise, a big increase in their presence during 2012 only reduced Likes and comments by 2%. Users are staying loyal, which during the 2012 Q4 earnings call Zuckerberg called a sign of the value Facebook provides. → Read More
Facebook laid the groundwork for several new money-makers in Q3 2012. Tomorrow’s earnings report will hopefully show if search typeahead ads, app ads, Gifts and Facebook Exchange are actually bringing home the bacon. If they’ve done well and are growing, Facebook’s future might look brighter to Wall Street. If not, Facebook will need new revenue building blocks to help it climb back to its $38… → Read More
Facebook keeps user counts for its mobile apps hidden, but researcher Benedict Evans found a way to uncover them and they provide critical insight into the direction and performance of Facebook’s mobile efforts. Most interestingly, Facebook’s Android user count is growing much faster than its iPhone user base, but is found on a lower percentage of Android devices. Let’s take a closer look. → Read More
Facebook has just announced its newest standalone app called “Poke” which lets people send photos, videos, pokes, or text Facebook messages to their friends that expire after a few seconds. The launch confirms AllThingsD’s report from earlier this month. Built in just 12 days, Poke is a big move into the ephemeral messaging space for Facebook, and it could give it even more data on who your… → Read More
Facebook today paused the test of its mobile ad network, which lives in other apps that it splits revenue with, and reapplying resources to its mobile feed ads. Freed-up staff could work on bringing its lucrative FBX ad exchange to mobile. In fact, Facebook is already looking into the option, says sources. FBX mobile could boost earnings and get $FB above its IPO price faster than an ad network. → Read More
Facebook and Apple grew closer today as mobile app install ads in Facebook for iOS 6 now allow users to download apps from the App Store via pop-up instead of interrupting users and forcing them to leave Facebook. By implementing Apple’s App Store pop-up API, Facebook could get developers to buy more of its ads since the clicks they pay for are more likely to turn into actual downloads. → Read More
Facebook’s HTML5 app nightmare is over. Later today it’s releasing Facebook for Android 2.0, which replaces the hybrid native/webview code with an all-native infrastructure to answer years of complaints by making the app much faster. The push follows August’s speed doubling iOS update that drastically improved user reviews. It’s a fitting end to the year when Facebook truly pivoted into a… → Read More
The first world might use just a handful of handsets, but the key to Facebook’s growth is emerging markets fragmented across over 7,000 smart and dumb phones. To help it bug test for all these, Facebook keeps an office “library” of mobile devices, product manager Peter Deng revealed. So what’s the team testing now? A version of Messenger for feature phones that doesn’t require a Facebook account. → Read More
“In the early days we gave employees iPhones primarily”, a Facebook spokesperson tells me. That decision and the rise of Android has left Facebook scrambling to get employees dogfooding its apps for Google’s OS. Now the company’s headquarters is plastered with these eye-popping posters asking Facebookers to “switch today”, and fix Android flaws with its secret bug reporting tool “Rage Shake”. → Read More
It’s not just for Android anymore. Facebook has figured out how to enable background auto-uploads and is now testing Photo Sync with a few iOS users. A tipster got us a screenshot and Facebook confirms iOS Photo Sync is a continuation of its two-month old test for Android. It could box out Google+ Instant Uploads and get people to share more photos — Facebook’s lifeblood. → Read More
How does Facebook know what features are good enough for its main smartphone apps? It tests them on the power users of its standalone apps Camera and Messenger. If the guinea pigs dig a new gesture or option, it gets called up to the big leagues — the 100 million+ user Facebook for iOS and Android apps. → Read More
Don’t trust the release notes. Facebook has just added photo filters to its iOS app, though the feature wasn’t announced in the version 5.1 “What’s New” that highlights multi-photo uploads, slide-out chat buddy list, and Gift giving. Here’s a look at the new features in v5.1 and what I think will be added in the next release. There are reports of serious bugs, though, so consider waiting for a… → Read More
Facebook has just released the Facebook SDK 3.1 for iOS which lets app developers on its platform to take advantage of single sign-on through native login and other features from the social network getting baked into iOS 6. The new SDK lets app developers prep their Facebook mobile apps for iPhone 5′s screen size, native sharing “sheets”, ready-to-use UI elements, and a new ad analytics beta. → Read More
Facebook today begins testing its own mobile ad network. Advertisers can pay to target you with ads for app stores or websites based on your Facebook data that appears while you’re on other apps and mobile sites. Facebook tells me that, similar to its first off-site ad placements on Zynga.com, the goal is to show Facebook users more relevant ads wherever they go, even outside the social network’s… → Read More
Until now, every Facebook mobile ad had to be triggered by you or a friend’s activity, but today Facebook begins testing a new non-social ad unit that lets developers buy mobile news feed ads that open Android and iOS App Store purchase pages when clicked. They’re designed to help developers grow their business. The ads are cost per click, not cost per install-based, however Facebook tells me it… → Read More
Every developer wants Facebook referral traffic, but not all apps have actions that fit well with auto-sharing, and others might not want to post to Facebook without their users’ express permission. So today Facebook launches a Like action for mobile and web apps. Don’t call it a “Like Button” though, as instead of immediately being one-click, the new Like Action requires a user to give… → Read More
If you’re sick of interrupting your news feed reading to open and load photos, you’ll like a new Facebook mobile site, iOS, and Android app redesign rolling out today that makes photos three times larger. Shares of single photos now look a lot like Instagrams, as they appear full width so there’s less need to stop and open them. Meanwhile the bigger previews of photo albums will help you instantly… → Read More
Yesterday, in a session on ‘Mobile Communications 2.0′ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook’s VP of User Growth, Mobile and International Expansion Chamath Palihapitiya shared the social networking giant’s current mobile strategy and its plans for the future.
It was in this session that the company for the first time talked about its latest product, Facebook Zero, which is… → Read More
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