After Ricky’s ultimate guide to Twitter on S60 that was published yesterday, I decided to tackle another social network: Facebook, and present to you in a table view all the ways that you could get your Facebook fix on your S60 devices.
Unfortunately, unlike Twitter, Facebook is lagging behind miserably in terms of native applications, as we still wait for the Nokia-Facebook deal‘s result, as well as the awesome widget that has been demonstrated endlessly on the N97. So the possibilities are more limited with Facebook, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get out with a decent experience on your S60 device.
First let’s start with the applications that provide the most complete Facebook experience, which happen to be widget-based.
| Facebook Widgets |
||||
| Application | Widsets Facebook | Snaptu | ||
| Version Tested | v3.1.5 | v1.01(7) | ||
| Free/Pay | Free | Free | ||
| Status update | Yes | Yes | ||
| Notifications (view, approve, reject) | Yes | No | ||
| News Feed | Yes | Yes | ||
| Comment on friend’s status | No | No | ||
| Search friends | Yes | Yes | ||
| Friend’s user info | Yes | Yes (only Networks and Birthdays) | ||
| View/Write on walls | Yes | No | ||
| View photos | Yes (only friend’s photoalbums) | Yes (friend’s photoalbums and photos of friend) | ||
| Poke | Yes | No | ||
| Phonebook | Yes (supports calling) | No | ||
| Send message to friend | Yes | Yes | ||
| Inbox | Yes (compose new, view inbox, reply) | Yes (view inbox, reply) | ||
| Upload pictures | Yes (only images taken instantly with the camera) | No | ||
| Events | No | No | ||
| Groups | No | No | ||
Although I’m not a fan of Widsets, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the Facebook Widset (credits go to @salimhb for telling me about it). Even if it’s not WRT-based and hence requires you to have Widsets installed in order to enjoy it, this widget offers a pretty complete Facebook experience. I was especially blown away by the fact that you can upload a new picture on the spot to your Facebook account: it launches the camera, you capture, and boom, the picture is in your Mobile uploads folder. Pretty awesome. The features provided by this widget seem to be pretty similar to those of the N97 widget, so if you want an avant-goût of that, all you have to do is to install Widsets with the Facebook widget.
Snaptu, on the other hand, has been my favorite way of accessing Facebook on the go for a while. I especially like the way it loads photoalbums with a grid view, then switches to fullscreen for individual picture viewing. It’s a widget inside a Java based app, so it’s not on the fast side of apps, but it’s simple, elegant and efficient.
Now let’s discuss the applications that have some sort of Facebook integration, amongst a ton of other features.
| Applications with limited Facebook functions |
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| Application | Shozu |
Fring | Gravity | |
| Version Tested | v4.1.80 | v3.37.20 | v1.20.6002 | |
| Free/Pay | Free (ad supported) | Free | Pay ($9.95USD) | |
| Status update | Yes | No (couldn’t find it) | Yes | |
| Notifications (view, approve, reject) | No | Yes | No | |
| News Feed | Yes (plus subscribe to individual friend’s feeds) | Yes (only by individual friend) | Yes | |
| Comment on friend’s status | No | No | Yes | |
| Search friends | No | No | No | |
| Friend’s user info | No | Yes | No | |
| View/Write on walls | No | No | No | |
| View photos | Yes | Yes (only friend’s photoalbums) | Yes | |
| Poke | No | Yes | No | |
| Phonebook | No | No | No | |
| Send message to friend | No | No | No | |
| Inbox | No | Yes | No | |
| Upload pictures | Yes (plus autoupload of new pictures) | No | No | |
| Events | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Groups | No | Yes | No | |
Shozu is mostly dedicated towards a great Facebook photo-integration and adds some basic status features, whereas Fring mostly offers a simple view of everything Facebook without much options, and with a very basic UI. Gravity is more focused on the news feed than actually interacting with the other areas of Facebook.
The 3rd part of this Facebook guide looks at mobile websites that allow you to enjoy Facebook on the go, without installing any 3rd party client.
| Facebook Mobile Websites |
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| Application | m.facebook.com |
iphone.facebook.com | ||
| Works on | S60 3rd and S60 5th | Only S60 5th (touch) | ||
| Free/Pay | Free | Free | ||
| Status update | Yes | Yes | ||
| Notifications (view, approve, reject) | Yes | Yes | ||
| News Feed | Yes | Yes | ||
| Comment on friend’s status | Yes | No | ||
| Search friends | Yes (plus searching for new friends) | No | ||
| Friend’s user info | Yes | Yes (complete) | ||
| View/Write on walls | Yes | Yes | ||
| View photos | Yes | Yes (friend’s photoalbums and photos of friend) | ||
| Poke | Yes | No | ||
| Phonebook | Yes (calling supported) | No | ||
| Send message to friend | Yes | No | ||
| Inbox | Yes (sent, inbox, compose, reply) | Yes (sent, inbox, compose, reply) | ||
| Upload pictures | No | No | ||
| Events | Yes | Yes | ||
| Groups | Yes | No | ||
Surprisingly, although it is not graphically pleasing, m.facebook.com offers the most complete Facebook experience amongst all 6 options presented here. It is the only option that allows you to comment on News Feeds, and the only one that allows you to search and add new friends. The iphone dedicated website doesn’t work on S60 3rd, but has a nice UI on the 5800 XpressMusic and offers a much more finger-friendly experience.
Adding to these 6 options, we should mention PixelPipe that allows you to upload pictures to Facebook through Share Online, Palringo and Nimbuzz that integrate Facebook chat, Skyfire and new.m.yahoo.com that let you view your News Feed, and finally MobileTribe which is a social communication java app.
We’ll keep this guide updated as new apps and new versions come out, so we’d love you to share this page with your Facebook addicted S60 friends. Also, Symbian-Guru has a dedicated Facebook page, so why don’t you come chat with us there?
