Android Community

it's crap!
if lists everyone's status's, you cannot see anyones comments, you cannot "i like" anything, any links you cannot click on, it's literally status's you see there's nothing else there like new photo's, new links, new videos, new notes etc

you may as well just go to the full facebook site on your phone

you cannot look through your friends list, you cannot search for anyone or anything like that, basically if you cannot see anyone on the status updates list then you cannot see anything about them!

avoid until it's had a massive update!

I totally agree!! Although the Dev promises lots of updates I think it should be made known that the app is in beta!

it's free, and really, is this any way to encourage developers who come up with software for a platform that is only just over 6 months old?

Seriously, we complain about not having this software and that software, but when someone starts something, you people are so quick to put them down instead of offering constructive comments and suggestions. When developers start charging a nominal fee (1% of the price of the phone) for software that they spend days or weeks on, you people complain, instead of being thankful that at least the software appears. And when developers say 'F*** this, I'm moving on to the iPhone', you people call them traitors.

The only way this platform can thrive and have a standing chance of being great is if we recognize and support the developers who come up with apps that we find useful, and the way to do so is through constructive support rather than beating them down like schoolyard bullies.

I, for one, would love to see what the mods have to say about this sort of behaviour on one of the earliest Android forums. I participate in other Android forums, along with automotive ones, and have never seen such short-sightedness.

if it was free then I wouldn't complain, but it's not so your whole point is moot

if it was a time limited demo then fine, if it was called Beta then fine, if they said what updates were coming then fine, but it's not, it's a paid app and it does nothing more than the free mobile facebook site does

oh, and another point, the phone's been free here in the UK for around 6 months so even the 99 cent or 99p apps cost more than the phone

Then vote with your wallet. I tried a couple of paid apps, decided they didn't work for me, and got my refund. This isn't a situation where developers have an opportunity to screw us over

In the interests of supporting developers in coming up with useful apps for the Android platform, would it not be more constructive to contact the developer directly to offer feedback and suggestions rather than to simply condemn the app in a public forum?

I'm not affiliated with the developer in any way, but the more people who offer feedback and support in helping developers test and improve their apps, the better the chances of us having really cool apps. Bratag's SnapPhoto Pro, Craiglist Checker, DroidFTP and other such apps were not what they are today, if not for constructive suggestions and feedback offered by people who support the vision that is Android.

To help this thread forward, let's create 2 lists:

1. Things that don't work correctly in this app

2. Suggested features that the developer could add to the app

of your list this is the only one I use and it's free so anyone could download it and suggest features and help out the developer. With this facebook one you have 24 hours to try it and then you either have to get a refund or keep using it in it's current state not knowing if the next update is in a week or 2 years time and if it will be worth waiting for. Forums are called forums for a reason, we can openly express ourselves on them and let others know what we think, especially if they are about to buy something and don't know much about it.

1) no links in anyone's status work, an example is it displays "http://" as "http:\/\/" and any other forward slashes have a backslash before them
I cannot see how many comments there are on peoples status's or what they are
I cannot see news feeds, just status updates
I cannot search for people
I cannot see anyone on my friends list who doesn't appear on the status update page
I cannot set "i like" to anything
I cannot see my inbox
there's no chat
I cannot see any groups or go on their discussions

that's just off the top of my head


2) see number 1

I'm not criticizing the need for open expression, but simply the choice for a mature adult to go into a public forum and start slamming a new app. I would, however, concede the argument that this app is not ready for prime time, and that the developer should reconsider listing it as a paid app until such a point that the app reaches a predefined level of maturity, which is why I have not chosen to pay for it yet

Your caution to other users however, is appreciated, because AFAIK, Android Market does not allow users to repurchase apps that they have claimed a refund from. That said, the developer is setting himself/herself up for long-term sales issues in pursuing this current plan of action by making this app a paid one before key features (at least by your definition and mine) are implemented.

Personally, I'm happy using http://m.facebook.com

lol all this is, is a wrapper for m.facebook.com..........

As the main developer of this application, I have a few things to add.

The application was build using Facebook's Developer Platform - ie, a set of tools FB makes available to third-party developers to create the Facebook apps you all know and love. Unfortunately, FB doesn't allow developers to access users' Walls, Inboxes, and various other features due to privacy concerns. Consequently, we have to use the browser. There's simply no way around it. So it's not that we're too lazy to add these types of features, it's that Facebook doesn't let us.

Now FriendMobilizer is not just a wrapper. It does use m.facebook.com as mentioned above, because there's simply no way around it for third-party developers.

FriendMobilizer was created in response to a lack of FB client applications. We're all big Facebook fans here and we wanted to create something that all of us would actually use. I believe we did just that. FriendMobilizer keeps you updated on your friends w/o having to open our browser in a very clear, appealing, and easy to use manner. (Plus, it's faster than the mobile browser and uses less bandwidth). We also made it convenient and easy to upload photos directly from your camera and pictures folder to FB. I would think this is well-worth the 99 cent price tag.

We are planning on releasing new features down the road, as more feedback is collected. One feature that we're particularly excited about is being able to see your friends current FB information when they call you.

i just want a real facebook app :[

make it come thru someone.

this thing is worse than FBook! Never thought that was possible...

Thanks for the clarification, mobiledev. At the risk of offending some, I feel like your post's point was completely missed so far, but I gotcha, and I'm glad that you shed some light on it.

As long as your app is functional, and you plan to regularly add new features in updates, then I'm on board.

Oh. I just saw who wrote Susan that mysterious IM this morning.

Mobiledev, thank you for joining Android Community and sharing your thoughts and reasoning with us. It is great to hear that developers are interested in what our members have to say and willing to have an open line of communication with us. I look forward to watching your Facebook application as it evolves even more.

I've played around with the iPhone version of Facebook and I gotta say it is real nice, it has chat, notifications, everything you'd expect from the full version of the website onto the app. Now I'm expecting something like this, but since Facebook won't allow devs access to the walls and other things, isn't there someway, you can make an app, where it would read the full page of Facebook, and bring up notifications and etc just the iphone version?

It's hard to explain and I'm guessing it would hard to impossible to make, but then again, I'd love to have something like that.... But overall, I'll be purchasing this app, I'll give it an shot, it's only $.99, So I've got nothing to lose.

Yep. Unfortunately, Facebook made the iPhone app internally, so they gave themselves special access to those APIs. And because of the bad blood between google and Facebook (CHILDREN! GROW UP AND STOP PUNISHING YOUR CUSTOMERS!), they won't budge on developing one for Android. I've made the request personally to the guy who wrote the iPhone app. It's not happening. But still, it seems someone could make use of the capabilities of m.facebook.com (NOT x.facebook.com) and at least make an app that would allow comments and such.

does this app have notifications for like comments? group invites.. etc?
like the normal notifications that show up in the status bar notifier ?

Yelling at this developer isn't going to fix some of the issues... The API's are not complete...

To make matters worse FB may not ever introduce a native app just due to their stubbornness to not engage with Google.

Even MS developed apps for competing OS's and platforms (Mac, Symbian, etc)...

I was hoping Zuckerberg wouldn't be such a Silicon Valley putz and adopt all platforms... Guess that is not the case.

I was initially pretty excited, but it seems to be little more than a wrapper around the non-iPhone m.facebook.com interface.

So far the iPhone has the best Facebook App. It even has Chat! Totally awesome.

Someone should just write an iPhone virtual machine for Android so we can run the few apps that are actually better on iPhone ;-)

there has been NO updates since I bought it a month ago!

avoid it!