Those of you that have been dealing with using Facebook on your Windows Phone powered device over the last year or so are going to be getting a nice surprise the next time you go to the official Windows Store. Instead of opening Facebook through the mobile browser or some third party application that you cannot trust, users will be able to download the Facebook application for Windows Phone powered device starting today. The application will give users all of the same features that are available through the browser.
The Facebook application will allow users to read status updates, post status updates, upload photos and comes with support for Facebook Pages as well. The app will also bring features that are unique to Windows Phone users including Live Tiles that will automatically notify users of pending notifications, as well as allowing users to open other apps while Facebook is running in the background. One drawback from the new app is that it will only scale down to about 50 percent of the display, while other applications can get scaled down to around 25 percent. Facebook is also the first social media application that does not support the Share Charm.
The People and Twitter apps allow users to share information instantly within other apps in just a few easy steps. Giving Windows Phone users access to an official Facebook app might seem like a small victory, but users will likely take what they can get at this point. Up until now, Windows Phone smartphone users had to use the built in browser to visit the site and that is never going to be the best possible experience for the user. For those that were using a laptop, the issue was never really there because the browser is full screen and that goes for those on the desktop as well.
Those that were trying to access Facebook via the Microsoft Surface RT, which runs Windows RT, had a hard time getting the screen to load correctly and were forced to try the mobile version of the site instead. Having Facebook in the Windows Store is a good thing, but does not mean that developers have decided to make more apps. Developers have been avoiding the platform because the products that are coming out are not able to take market share from Android or Apple in terms of the app stores.
