To connect with the rest of the social networking world there is one application that you are going to need, the original and still the one of the best, the official Facebook app.
Facebook will most likely be one of the very first apps that you will install on your new iPhone. If you are a keen user you will no doubt be eager to see how well it works on Apple’s iOS platform, compared to the traditional desktop PC version. There are many alternatives to the official Facebook application, pretenders to the crown that seek to capture your attention and find a home on your home screen. Admittedly some of these apps are rather good but it is hard to overlook the very obvious fact that no matter how good they are they are little more than copies of the original.
Upon installation, when you open up Facebook the first thing you will see is the Sync Contacts feature. You are given the option to sync your iPhone contacts with your Facebook Friends list, which will download profile pics and addresses into your iPhone’s contact list. If you choose to turn on Sync Contacts, a confirmation screen will pop up telling you exactly what it will be doing. Once you confirm, the process will take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the size of your Friends list, to sync all of the relevant information.
You can access a lot more of Facebook’s features now because the new application acts more like a Facebook-specific web browser instead of a typical app. While this may seem like more a hindrance than a help it really isn’t because the app still loads just as quickly as all previous version did, even over a slower 3G connection.
As useful as the new interface and the Sync Contacts option are, the best feature by far is the Facebook app’s push notifications. It is possible to know the instant that someone sends you a friend request, a message or makes a comment on your status, without having to open the app to check your account. All of these push notifications and more are customisable from within the Settings menu. This means if you only want notifications for new messages you can have just that, or you can enable two or three specific types of notification without turning them all on. All the key elements from the web-based version are here, and are simple to access and use, such as uploading a photo from your library or changing your status; all are accessible with just a few taps.
If there has ever been any doubt as to whether this version is a worthwhile addition to your iPhone, we can assure you that it most certainly is. Whether you are a casual user and just want to save time, or if you are a Facebook addict and need to have access 24/7, this app offers enough customisable features to keep anyone happy. This is simply a must-have app in our opinion, since it takes all the functionality you could possibly want for the world’s biggest social networking site and enables you to take it with you where ever you choose to go. It almost seems a cliché but Facebook, one of the original reasons in the social networking explosion, remains the most vital way to communicate
