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2012

Facebook For iOS App Gets Messages, Photos Update With New Features

November 7, 2012 0

New York – In an effort to make it easier for its growing audience to chat and upload multiple photos on their mobile devices, Facebook has just announced an update to their iOS app, adding new Web features to the mobile version of the social network, the first major update since they launched version 5.0 back in August.

The updated app, Facebook for IOS 5.1, was released on Monday, which brings with it a bunch of new features, such as easier chatting with friends, faster sharing of multiple photos, besides merging its dedicated Camera application with its popular standalone app, as well as the ability to electronically send gifts to friends (US only).

Interestingly, users can now access their chat list in two new ways. First, there is now a button on the top right of the app. Second, users can swipe to the left to pull over their chat list. Similarly, swipe right for navigation menu, and swipe left for chat list. With this update, Facebook for iOS now mimics Facebook on desktop.

And once you have accessed the chat list, you can now edit the order of your friends to put your most-talked-to buddies at the top. The latest Facebook for iOS app now gives users the ability to quickly see who is available online and send a message. Friends can also be added to the favorite bar for quicker and easier access. Each friend also sports an online indicator that lets you know if they are currently available or tells you how long they have been active but idle (on mobile).

In addition, the camera feature added to the app too is quite nifty, giving users the ability to share multiple photos – very reminiscent of the Facebook camera app, as well as lets users add different filters to their photos, a la Instagram – owned by Facebook. Twitter is also moving to add photo filters to its mobile app in a bid to stay competitive.

(Credit: Facebook)

Among the numerous features, now, once you have selected your photo, you can apply one of several different filters to your image, such as Neon, B+W or Golden. You are also given the option to crop your images before uploading, and to upload multiple images at the same time.

Finally, in addition to the new messaging and photo features, Facebook adds improvements to Facebook Gifts’ function for its iOS 5.1 update. This service has been available on Android for some time. The caveat here is that this is only for U.S. users and you must already be a part of the small Facebook Gifts test in order to have the functionality on mobile; click the “Give him/her a gift” link on your newsfeed or a friend’s profile to get started. Facebook is currently working on rolling Gifts out to more users.

The social network has been maximizing the prominence of its new gift-giving service, Facebook, like other online companies, is recognizing the rapid growth of mobile as users shift away from desktops.

For more on Facebook for iOS, see the slideshow here, (Courtesy PCMag).

This latest update is available in the App Store.