Facebook Improves Mobile Experience, Adds Deals, Upgrades Apps
Facebook on mobile
Yesterday Facebook held an event centered on mobile devices. Some people were probably hoping to see the release of a Facebook phone though we all have to admit the chances of that happening were pretty slim. Instead, the event was all about Facebook Places, new iPhone and Android applications and how the company is interested in achieving an even deeper integration on mobile. The sign in process for Facebook on mobile was greatly simplified as well. For short, Facebook is becoming more easily accessible and usable on all types of phones, especially smartphones.
The reasoning behind this is quite simple. People are starting to learn and understand how many benefits mobile devices can offer. Back in the day when you wanted to go on a social networking site, you were restricted to your computer. When outside the house, there was no way to check what your friends were doing or what was new on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Nowadays you can do that while on the go. Whether you’re commuting, waiting in line, on a lunch break or whatever else, you can first of all enjoy the access provided to social networking and secondly make the time pass faster and in a more enjoyable way. There’s no surprise that in this scenario social networking companies are quite interested in appealing to as many mobile users as possible.
So let’s start from the top. First of all, Facebook has announced that it will make some updates to its mobile applications, mostly regarding Facebook Places. According to Mashable Facebook for Android with come pre-loaded with Groups and Places integration. Previous to this change owners of Android smartphones would have to check in through the Facebook mobile site. As for iPhone users, they’ll be able to add photos to check-ins. They’ll also get better tagging.
At the same press conference at the event that took place in Palo Alto, the company mentioned that it will implement a new platform feature which will allow developers to add a single click Facebook sing-in to mobile applications. Apparently a pretty significant number of devs have already implemented the option or will do so in the future. The list currently includes Groupon, Zynga and Yelp. Until now Facebook offered Facebook Connect for the iOS and Android platforms. The new feature is even simpler than that. Users will be able to stay logged in on their mobile device and click on a Facebook login button on certain apps. Now this part may bring forth a lot of complaints regarding privacy. That’s because Facebook will have to allow other companies to look into its database of location information. They’ll be able to see what friends and businesses are near a certain Facebook user. Some people could be bothered by this. Facebook has already had a ton of problems with its site regarding privacy. It will be interesting to see how they’ll manage to avoid such conflicts and worries in the future.
Facebook deals, image:Mashable
On top of that, the new iPhone app seems to feature a new app called Deals which will allow you to see, within Places, what locations are currently offering a deal. Users will be able to check-in, “claim” a deal and unlock it. The deal will then be posted to that user’s Facebook wall. By offering the new Deals feature, Facebook hopes to convince more people to use Places. It also opens up some new revenue opportunities. For instance, 22 major consumer companies will already have their deals displayed on Facebook’s new feature. The Gap is said to give away 10.000 pairs of jeans to customers who “check in” through the Places service this Friday.
Mashable also reports that there will be four types of deals : Individual Deals (for discounts, free giveaways and similar rewards), Loyalty Deals for faithful customers, Charity Deals which will allow users to donate to a certain cause and Friend Deals where two people who are friends claim something together. The service is currently available for the new iPhone app (at the time of writing this it wasn’t available for download but it should show up soon). Android users will have to access Deals through touch.facebook.com. If you’re interested in how the service works, exactly, well, you’ll be able to find deals by scanning for the yellow icon every time you check-in with Places. Click on the deal to claim it then proceed to the cashier where you’ll have to show the deal. For starters, Deals will be rolling out progressively in the US (within the next few days). Facebook also mentioned that it will expand to more locations in the near future.
According to the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the social network now has about 200 million mobile users (from 65 million recorded in the same period last year). “There are things that you can do on mobile phones that you can’t do on the normal Web,” he said. He also added that people have their phones with them all the time and this implies that a lot more usage is happening on phones. But the bad part is that most of today’s apps for phones don’t integrate social networking features properly.
Naturally, Facebook is joining other companies in offering a better experience on mobile. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are working on the same thing. People are surfing the web increasingly and advertisers will move to whatever platform can render them the most interest from customers and the largest number of viewers. If more people are interested in Facebook on mobile, for example, then it’s in the social network’s best interest to offer an experience that’s optimal. By doing that more users will access the site on mobile and more advertisers will be interested in dishing out money to be seen.
