Good Facebook app?

[tman52]

I don't like the fact that I would be told, Oh hey So and so commented on your status, now click this link to take you to the mobile web that will let you look at this status. Don't get me wrong, I love my phone, and would only trade it for the Nexxus. But you have to admit for something SO user friendly, app friendly, and Facebook being as big as it is, the FB app support just sucks.

 

[jkhonea]

I would say hold tight. I just received an update for my Windows Mobile Facebook app (still waiting for the new batch of Android phones from Verizon). Anyway, the update is a HUGE improvement. Actually very usable now. If this one came down, I'd say you might hold tight. Android might be getting an update soon, too.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I don't like the fact that I would be told, Oh hey So and so commented on your status, now click this link to take you to the mobile web that will let you look at this status. Don't get me wrong, I love my phone, and would only trade it for the Nexxus. But you have to admit for something SO user friendly, app friendly, and Facebook being as big as it is, the FB app support just sucks.

bloo doesn't take you to the browser for anything simple, ie, comment on your picture, comment on your status, someone likes your status, etc.

It's a native app. It's the same for pictures. You can swipe through the pictures in someone's album using bloo. It's SERIOUSLY a great app.

And, get this! I was going to post all of that up there earlier, but had an internet malfunction and was in the middle of recovering the ROM that I go back to when theming ideas fail. I keep my apps backed up and very current, and there hadn't been an update to bloo in a good month or two (ramble, ramble, ramble)

Anyway, when I went to update the few icons that I didn't have set in my nandroid backup, I found a pleasant surprise...:icon_ banana:bloo was updated today!:icon_ banana: He fixed some issues that were driving me nuts, added some nice little feature and states in the changelog that a widget will have to wait, as he's decided to work on chat next.

I was actually starting to wonder if he'd given up on the app, though I was content with how it worked for me, but he hasn't.

I use the beta version. It's free. It's the shiznit. Try it out. Really guys. There are a LOT of "apps" out there that are no more than a mobile browser wrapper. bloo is an ACTUAL app and it does a pretty damn good job at what it does especial when you stick it beside the "official" app...

 

[slinky]

How much extra does bloo do that I can't really do right now? When I used it I was impressed with the effort but it didn't acomplish much more than the built in, which functions fine and has reliable alerts.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Messages, pokes, friend requests, and event invites are the only things that the stock app will sound a notification on your phone for. Bloo will sound a notification for you when someone comments anything you post or are tagged in. I only have people that I actually want to keep in tough with on my fb, not just anyone I her met or went to school with, so I set bloo's notification timer to 2 minutes, and I can stay current when I'm not working or preoccupied with other things. I'll post some pics to help illustrate in a little bit...

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Ok...Here you go...

This is your main screen (Pretty Self Explanatory)

When you click Share, you get this dialog. From here, you can upload video, or easily share links as well as simply update your status. bloo is also integrated well into the phone. You can share from your gallery via bloo. In Dolphin, when I click "Share Page" in the menu, bloo is also an option there, so it's not even necessary to copy the url and past it into the share box unless you want to put a comment with it

Next, you've got your feed. I like how things like the horoscope at the top are displayed in bloo a LOT better than the stock app. In fact, I just opened the native app and that horoscope doesn't even show in the feed. Sure, it's just a horoscope, but I have a buddy who's horoscope I like to comment on from time to time. I make it sound even more ridiculous and twist the meaning as I paraphrase it...Yeah...I'm a dork...

Here are the notifications. As you can kinda see with my friend Carly's status notifications, you get a good look at a thread of comments. When You have bloo set to notify you, this window will open by itself so you can view notifications. Clicking any of them takes you to the corresponding post. Also important to note, if you get 1 notification and the phone vibrates and/or makes the sound you've chosen, and then you get more notifications before checking it, it doesn't re-notify you (which would get really old really fast). Instead, when you pull down your notification tray from the status bar, you'll see you have X number of notifications.

The photos are one of my favorite parts of this app. I hate the way the touch site handles photos...I can't figure out how to view comments. And the mobile site displays them so small, you have to zoom in if you're viewing someone else's photo for the first time to figure out what you're looking at. The horizontal list of albums scrolls very smoothly and throughout the app, you'll find the subtle fading effect that you see on the display image of the photo on the left. bloo also allows you to create a new album from within your photos section of the app. You cannot create a new album when uploading directly from the gallery though, so be sure to create an album in the program first.

This is a look inside one of my smaller albums. Larger albums will only load so many thumbnails at a time (I forget how many). Pressing menu gives you the option to expand. This is nice as far as wait times go because it's only retrieving so much data at one time and once it's got the first batch, it simply adds the subsequent batches in and you can scroll up/down.

Last, but not least, is a photo in "full view." By default, photos are just a bit bigger than in the mobile browser, but double-tapping them puts them in full view (depending on from where/how it was uploaded, some photos won't get much larger in full view. As I'm not the dev and know nothing about the app other than that I enjoy using it, I don't know the reason behind this.) In full view, a long press will bring up a menu to tag yourself or tag a friend. Pressing menu in either view of a photo gives you the option to save, view comments, show tags, or view caption. From view comments, you can press menu again to post a new comment.

Bloo also has contact sync/merge abilities, but I haven't played around with them enough to give much information about it. I think I've used it on one or two contacts that the official app didn't give me pictures for. I figure if I "HAVE" to have the official app on my phone, it might as well do SOMETHING. Haha!

In the changelog and his official website, the dev has stated "So, it seems that Facebook now allows 3rd party clients to integrate Facebook Chat. I put the widget on hold for a bit and give higher priority to Facebook chat. 1.4.4 has some preliminary work." So Facebook chat and all that you see above (plus a little more) will eventually be available in one convenient app.

In addition, on the same website (link provided below), he states, "For starters, Facebook API (Application Programming Interface) as the name suggests is an interface which Bloo — and other Facebook apps for that matter — communicate with. It includes a variety of methods that allow apps to perform actions (e..g Like a post). These methods are defined and supported by Facebook. For the sake of security, Facebook has created a permission system in which it allows the user to explicitly allow a 3rd party app to perfom an action."

In addition, "The API does not offer any function to send inbox messages and an extremely limited API fo chat. In fact, there is only one method for chat I have seen and that requires a browser, something that Bloo avoids and also is not able to handle. During a phone conversation I found out that Facebook only offers inbox send functionality to trusted partners. This is why apps like iPhone or BlackBerry can send them. These are official apps and are trusted partners with Facebook." Although you can't SEND messages from bloo, you CAN view your inbox by clicking the Inbox button the the main page. Blame FACEBOOK for not being able to reply directly from bloo.

Though the part about chat seems like it may be irrelevant soon (This latter part comes from an older post), this might explain fairly well why it's so difficult to get a "Good" Facebook app on Android from anyone other than Facebook or Google, but Google's got a lot of other things to deal with and Facebook seems hell-bent on trying to overtake Google. :icon_eek:

That being said, I bought my Droid in late November '09, and was immediately disgusted by the "Official" Facebook app. I figured I'd give the free bloo beta a try, and I haven't looked back since.

The fact that Facebook is easing up on its strict control over what sort of apps/programs can access it is a good sign for anyone who cares about Facebook on Android.

As previously stated, I'm in no way affiliated with the dev of bloo or Facebook, but I'd be happy to do my best to field any questions about everyday use, as this has literally become the way I use Facebook. When everyone was posting about how much they hate the new layout of Facebook, I was simply using good ol' bloo. Haha!

Link to dev's site (source of quotes)-> Bloo – The Android Facebook App

Since I spent the time on this, I'm going to make a new thread with this info in it, but I'll stay subscribed to this one to get you opinions/questions. I'm not trying to push a pile of s*** on you guys. I really think this is a great app for facebook if you don't give a crap about mafia wars, farmville, cafe town, donkey village, and whatever else those stupid games are...lol...At least until we get Flash...

Hope this gives you some insight into the benefits of a REAL app and the knowledge that not ALL facebook apps simply point to the browser. bloo avoids it a ALL costs.