Facebook Is Reportedly Working On A News Reader App

Facebook is reportedly working on a smartphone and tablet friendly news aggregation service, not based on RSS, in an effort to keep mobile users on the site for longer. Both TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal have been informed by sources that the development of the product, codenamed “Reader”, will not be rushed.

Reader will reportedly be more similar to Flipboard, a social media feed aggregation app with 50 million users, than the soon to be defunct Google Reader. Presumably, the app will collate posts and stories that a user’s friends have already engaged with, as well as those from pages that the user has liked, and arrange them in a tablet or smartphone screen-friendly format.

Currently, most mobile users are spending minute amounts of time of Facebook’s app, checking updates and sending quick messages rather than browsing through the news feed for any decent length of time. Facebook are hoping that by investing time in creating an attractive, intuitive and accessible interface, users will be persuaded to spend more time on the app, hence being more susceptible to advertising.

However, according to some sources, Facebook views news reader apps as niche products, not suitable for the majority of Facebook’s socially-concerned users. It is suggested that Facebook are putting time into the project in order to minimise the risk involved.

Two of Facebook’s competitors, LinkedIn and Twitter, are investing heavily in similar software. LinkedIn, for example, bought Pulse, a mobile-friendly news aggregator app, for $90 million earlier this year. Facebook will have to bring something new to the table if they hope to compete with Pulse and Flipboard, as well as everything else that’s already out their, but a focus on the engagement of friends may help the company do just that.

In related news, some Facebook users are being prompted to start group chats with friends who have liked their posts. A “Start Group Chat” button has appeared at the bottom of the “People who like this” box. Facebook has also begun asking users to invite their friends to like pages even if they are not the page’s administrators.

Do you think a Facebook Reader is a good idea?

Pipe App Finally Brings File Transfer to Facebook

After more than a year of teasing its service in beta and in invitation-only mode, a Facebook app called Pipe is finally launching this week to make file transferring easy and possible for the first time on the social network. It also has the potential to be a true game changer.

Berlin-based Pipe Dream Technologies aims to change the way people share on Facebook, allowing members to drag and drop music, documents, video and pictures into a virtual green tube that looks like the one from Super Mario Brothers franchise. On the other end, Facebook friends are able to receive these items in real time with Pipe, even if they don't have the app or aren't online.

And here's the kicker: The files can be big — very big, up to 1 GB. Keep in mind most email attachments max out at about 100 MB.

"There are more than a billion users on Facebook and there is no easy solution to transfer a file from one person to another," Simon Howell of Pipe told Mashable.

"There are more than a billion users on Facebook and there is no easy solution to transfer a file from one person to another," Simon Howell of Pipe told Mashable. "We have taken a function such as attaching a file and turned it into something anyone can use — without ever leaving Facebook. It's secure and private, and we're confident it will catch on and spread fast."

The company has been working since May 2012 to keep its user base tight while it identified technical issues such as connecting to computers with unusual network settings, and in the meantime, closed a small funding round and built out the team.

Last year, Facebook tested a Groups feature that allowed file sending up to 25 MB — including Facebook Groups for Schools, which required an .edu address to use — but the concept hasn't been widely introduced across the site. The Pipe app, which officially launches on Wednesday, brings the ability to send attachments and larger files to Facebook, to everyone for the first time.

So here's how Pipe works: The sender must access the Pipe app via the Facebook App Center and then select the friend to which they want to send a file.

The user then drags and drops the file into the virtual green tube on the screen. The other person doesn't even have to have the app or even has to be online at the time, but will receive a notification the next time they log in.

If the recipient is offline, the file sits in "a locker," which can store up to 100 MB, until the person signs on and accesses it. There is no limit to the number of lockers available for each user. Afterward, the recipient can save the file to their desktop and it won't be archived in the locker.

Files sent via Pipe app never actually pass through Facebook; instead, they travel directly between computers using Adobe technology.
The service feels like a combination of Snapchat and Dropbox. It's also in the same vein as AirDrop for Mac, which allows for easy file transfer among computers even without Wi-Fi.

Although the app can be accessed directly on Facebook, Pipe believes most users will likely use it after receiving a file transfer request from a friend by clicking on a link that pops up as a Facebook notification.
Overall, the service is easy to use and will certainly come in handy. We found early testing was initially slow, and the inability to store files was a drawback. But this won't stop us from us — or adopters who want to get their hands on such a neat and practical tool — from routinely using Pipe.

The app isn't coming to mobile yet, but a mobile version would be a huge opportunity for greater adoption among the many Facebook members using the site on the go.

"We're going live on the desktop first and will release mobile versions of Pipe a little later," Hossell said. "We have them in the pipeline already."

What do you think of Pipe? Could it be the new hot tool for Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

Facebook Home Finally Hits 1 Million Downloads

Facebook Home has finally hit 1 million downloads exactly one month after being released for Android, according to install numbers in the Google Play store.

At a press event on Thursday, Facebook's director of mobile engineering told reporters that Home had been downloaded "just about" 1 million times. On Sunday, Facebook Home was classified as having been installed 1 million - 5 million times in the Google Play Store. Facebook did not immediately respond to our request for comment about when exactly it passed the million mark.

While it's certainly a good milestone to reach, demand for Facebook Home appears to be dropping off. It took Facebook 10 days to hit 500,000 downloads and about twice that long to hit 1 million. Data from App Annie, which tracks app store rankings, shows that Facebook Home is currently below the top 100 Android apps in every country where it's available. In the US, it barely cracked the top 50 at its peak and has since dropped out of the top 300.

Many developers would be ecstatic to have their app downloaded 1 million times, but for Facebook, that represents a drop in the bucket considering it has more than 750 million active monthly mobile users. It also seems unlikely that all of those who have downloaded the app continue to have it installed on their phones, considering that Facebook Home has just a two-star rating in Google Play right now.

In another troubling sign for the product, AT&T and HTC recently dropped the price of the first phone that comes with Facebook Home baked into it — the HTC First — from $99 to $0.99 (with a two-year contract.)

Image courtesy of Facebook

Facebook Acquires Cloud App Platform Parse

Facebook has announced the acquisition of Parse, a cloud-based platform which provides app back-end services, data storage and social integration tools to developers, having bought the company outright this week.

Facebook had to fight off competition from a number of the other big hitters in Silicon Valley for the app, which was founded two years ago by a group of experienced programmers and developers. Parse decided to go with Facebook because none “of the other conversations created anywhere near the excitement level that [the Parse creators] had for Facebook”, said CEO and co-founder Ilya Sukhar.

Although Parse is clearly a useful service, some have wondered why Facebook, a company with no products or operating system of its own, has acquired it. Facebook, does, however, have a lot of app developers working within its system. In an announcement on the Facebook Developers blog, Doug Purdy explained the value of Parse as a developers tool:

By making Parse a part of Facebook Platform, we want to enable developers to rapidly build apps that span mobile platforms and devices. Parse makes this possible by allowing developers to work with native objects that provide backend services for data storage, notifications, user management, and more. This removes the need to manage servers and a complex infrastructure, so you can simply focus on building great user experiences. Parse could potentially create some serious revenue for Facebook: Parse currently offers three models – a free one, one costing $199 per month and an enterprise model – with the company monetising the top 10% of its clientele. There are around 60,000 apps on Parse and about the same number of developers. Purdy said that Parse will continue to offer the same products to Facebook developers looking to use the service.

Parse will not only help developers speed up the app creation process, it will also get their apps discovered and potentially profitable. Existing Parse developers won’t be affected by the acquisition, they won’t have pay more or integrate with Facebook, but they might see more interest in their apps thanks to Facebook’s patronage. Facebook, meanwhile, will immediately start making money thanks to the monthly dues some of Parse’s current clientele pay.

What do you think of Facebook’s acquisition of Parse?       

Facebook Chat Heads: Now Rolling Out on iPhone

Facebook is updating its iOS apps to include the chat heads feature this week, with the necessary update hitting the app store Tuesday, the company has announced.
iPhone users who download the update will start to see chat heads pop up over the next couple of weeks, Facebook says.

Chat heads was unveiled as part of the Facebook Home announcement two weeks ago. Messages received on Facebook appear as bubbles with your friends' heads in them. You can drag the bubbles around the sides of your screen. Clicking on them reveals the message; dragging them to the bottom dismisses the chats altogether.

On Facebook Home, a new downloadable layer that sits on top of Android, chat heads appear on your home screen and lock screen. On the iPhone and iPad, they will only appear within the Facebook app.
Keith Schroepfer, CTO and VP of engineering told the D: Dive Into Mobile conference that the iOS app update featuring chat heads would be pushed out at some point this week. Facebook later clarified that the update would arrive Tuesday, but that chat heads would be a staggered rollout.

Do you have the chat heads update? Think it's a useful feature? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of Facebook

Apps More Prominent On Redesigned Facebook Timeline

Facebook has announced an update to the timeline, with bigger and better app placement, improved navigation and streamlined tools for connecting with Open Graph. The About section has also been redesigned to help users express more about what matters to them – their interests and activities.

The redesigned timeline is identical to the one tested in New Zealand earlier this month, but the improvements to the apps in the About tab have not been seen before. The new asymmetrical timeline places all the user’s notifications and posts into one larger column on the right, with everything else – About, Friends, Photos, etcetera – in a smaller column on the left. Apps are afforded more space on the new timeline page, with users given the ability to feature their preferred applications in distinct sections.

Users can also select apps to be featured in the About tab, just as they are on the left of the timeline. People can adorn the About page with thumbnails of their favourite books, movies, songs, films, hobbies and television shows, or they can share this information from the apps they use. For example, users could devote a section to music they listen to on Spotify, to shows they watch on Netflix, or to the books they read on Goodreads.


Specific apps can also be added as standalone sections on the timeline or in the About tab. Each section can then be separated into subsections, depending on the user’s relationship with the content. The screenshot of the “Books” box on the Facebook Developers page, for instance, has three subsections: “Read”, “Want to Read” and “Likes”. A section devoted to the user’s Instagram feed, meanwhile, is separated into “My Photos” and “Photos I Like”.

Users can interact with the content in their friends’ app sections. For example, if they see a movie they want to see in a friend’s “Watched” movies subsection, they can hover over the thumbnail until a plus sign appears in the top right-hand corner. Clicking on the plus sign will reveal a drop down menu, from which users can either choose to add the movie to their own “Watched”, “Want to Watch” or “Likes” subsection – in this case “Want to Watch”.

The update also gives users more control over which apps appear on their Facebook profile page, and in what order, says Jeff Huang in the announcement post:

To simplify how apps are displayed on timeline, we’re replacing aggregations with app sections. Previously, only top-ranked Open Graph stories and aggregations would appear on timeline. Now, when someone adds an app section, it will appear in the same place until they edit the order or visibility.

Developers are encouraged to promote their apps “by linking to it on web or invoking it on mobile”. Apps can be added as sections after installation by clicking on the “Add to Profile” button on the app section page.


The redesign also means more tools for app developers. Developers will now be able to create “Collections”, which will appear in an Open Graph search or on a users timeline if they opt in. There are three distinct layouts for collections: List, Gallery and Map. Just like actions, all collections require approval.

These updates will be introduced to all users and developers over the coming weeks.

What do you think of the new app-focused profile page?

VoIP Calling On Facebook Messenger Distributed To U.S. Users

Facebook Messenger users in the United States have begun receiving VoIP calling for their Messenger app which is a new way to make free calls.

The feature has been tested in Canada and has now begun to be distributed to U.S. users. The calling service in Canada was accompanied with an app update which saw users given help and support for voice messaging.

The calls are only free if you are using Wi-Fi. However, the Facebook Messenger voice calling will also use regular cellular data if there is no Wi-Fi present.

For the VoIP calling function to work, users need to open the app, and if the feature has been given to you, tap the “i” button on the top right of open messages to see a “Free Call” icon.

The bonus of Facebook Messenger to make voice calls other than the obvious fact of it being free is that it can be accessed any time an internet connection is found.

With this instalment, Facebook look to be asserting themselves more and more into the realm of mobile communications.


Facebook last month allowed users to use the Android Messenger app by just signing up with a phone number. This was followed by a “Poke” app that deleted messages after a certain amount of time.

VoIP calling is currently only available to iOS users.

Can you access the VoIP calling on the Messenger app? What do you think about this update?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Facebook Asks For Participants For Poke Survey

Facebook are placing ads on user’s homepage of the social media site to find participants who are willing to take part in a survey concerning their new Poke app.

The giants of social media want to know how you feel about ‘poking’, and whether you use it at all. The Poke app was launched a few weeks ago and by using Ethn.io, an internet recruiting tool, subjects are being found.

Clicking on the ad that says, “Facebook is seeking paid participants for phone research” leads participants to a questionnaire that first and foremost asks whether they are using the application or not.

“We’re conducting phone interviews about the poke app and would like to talk with you if you use the app. This is not spam . . .”

“If you’d be willing to talk with us over Skype/GoTomeeting for 45 min and have a webcam, answer a few questions and we’ll contact you if you are selected. Only those who we contact will receive the incentive.”

Users who have been chosen to take part are then eligible to receive a $75 gift card from Amazon once they have completed the face-to-face interview.



The Poke app for iPhone allows users to send photos, videos, or messages to friends which last for a specific amount of time. The app adds a different perspective to Facebook as it gives people the chance to temporarily add content whereas content posted in general feels very permanent.

To celebrate the launch of the Poke app, Facebook changed the sign in front of their HQ at Menlo Park from a Like sign to that of a Poke sign.

With useful feedback from those participating, Facebook will be able to develop improved strategies and techniques to get more people involved.

The release of the Poke app coincides with a rise in Facebook’s stock. Stock prices have gone up to $30 which has been steadily rising since it hit an all time low of $17.55 in August.

What do you think of the Poke app? Will you be taking part in the survey?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Facebook Adds Voice Messaging to Its Messenger App

Facebook added the ability to send voice messages to its Messenger app for iOS and Android Thursday.
To send a voice message, tap the + button beside where you traditionally type a message in the Messenger app. Then select Record, holding the button down to speak. When you release the Record button, your voice message will be sent to your recipient.

Along with today's update, Facebook has also started testing VoIP functionality in Canada. iPhone users in the country can try the feature by tapping the "I" button in the top right corner of a conversation with a person they would like to call, and then tapping Free Call.

Important to note: While free to use, these VoIP calls will use your existing data plan, which could get pricey if you use the feature often.
Messenger is one of several stand-alone apps developed by Facebook. The company often uses the apps to test new features with power users before deciding which features to include in the traditional Facebook app for the social network's general audience.

Late last month Facebook released a new stand-alone app called Poke, which allows users to send short photo, text, or video messages to Facebook friends. Messages sent via Poke expire after a certain period of time (one to 10 seconds).

Will you use Messenger for voice messaging with friends? Let us know in the comments what you think about the new feature.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, akinbostanci

Facebook App Update Includes Photo Filters

Those who have the updated iOS Facebook app will now be able to edit their photos in an Instagram styled manner on their phones.
The updated app allows users to edit photos that they have taken by tapping a wand icon at the bottom of their screen. Once the photo has been selected, the wand icon reveals 13 different filters, similar to that of Instagram.

The filters have names such as cool, contrast, neon, coffee, and black and white. Users can upload the picture straight to Facebook from the app.
Shortly after Facebook had bought Instagram in April, the social media giants introduced a Facebook Camera app. This app was almost identical to Instagram in terms of the filters available.



Although filters aren’t new for those accustomed to Facebook Camera, this is the first time that they have been united through the Facebook app.
With Instagram soon to have an online presence and Facebook having the ability to edit photos, it seems that although linked, both are looking to expand by using each other as a model of success.

Facebook Plugin Offers Another Way to Control Privacy

Facebook has offered another way to control which activities you’ll share when using apps that interact with Facebook on the web. A new plugin called Shared Activity lets users modify their privacy settings while in a particular web app, giving them control of who sees their activities created on that app in Facebook.
Facebook’s Developer Blog offered an example (pictured at right) of how this new plugin works:
“From the plugin on sites such as Airbnb, people can set the default Facebook audience for activity shared from your app, or manage the settings for stories previously published to Facebook, including selecting an audience or removing it altogether.”
These capabilities are already available in Facebook itself, but now users won’t need to leave an app to adjust its sharing settings. The plugin is complimentary to the current ability to adjust sharing details in three different places within Facebook: in the Timeline itself, in Facebook’s app settings, or its activity log.
This new plugin gives users more convenient control of who gets to see their input. For instance, if a user doesn’t want the general public to see what stories he likes in a certain app, or his comments within it, he can adjust that without leaving the application and going back to Facebook.
Adding another way to ensure privacy on Facebook sounds like a great idea, but do you think this plugin will add yet another layer of complexity for users to navigate? Is it too much?

How to Find Out When Your Facebook ‘Likes’ Go on Sale

Some 5.6 million products have been “Liked” across the web, according TheFind. On Tuesday, the search-based shopping site introduced a system that automatically notifies users when items they Like go on sale.

To start receiving notification emails, simply install the TheFind’s Glimpse app on Facebook. You’ll receive an alert when an item first goes on sale and when it is further discounted.

The system is undoubtedly useful and easy to install, but it has one unfortunate drawback: If you Like a product on say, Nordstrom, and it goes on sale over at Net-a-Porter, you won’t receive a notification. CEO Siva Kumar says that capability will come later; for now, “our first focus is on providing benefit to the 11,000 retailers we partner with by delivering incentives such as free shipping and coupons to the people who Like that retailer’s products,” he says.

TheFind’s sales alert feature is similar to one London-based startup Lyst introduced for Pinterest in May. If you connect your Pinterest account at Lyst.com, you’ll receive an email every time a product you’ve pinned goes on sale or is further discounted. What’s more, if an item you’ve pinned goes on sale at a different retailer’s website first, you’ll still get notified.

Is Facebook Testing a ‘Want’ Button?

Facebook may be testing a “Want” button that would allow you to add products to a virtual wish list.

According to Tom Waddington, a web developer for the site Cut Out + Keep, Facebook has a disabled “Want” button included in the Javascript coding its list of social plug-ins. This means that — in addition to existing plug-ins such as subscribe and the Like button that allow users to see friend activity across the site — a “Want” button would likely allow members to see what items others in their network want to purchase.

“The code was released to the Facebook Javascript SDK on Wednesday,” Waddington told Mashable. “I keep track of the changes to the file.”

Waddington said he discovered a few other new tags — such as “degrees,” “page events,” “social context” and “privacy selector” — but they don’t seem to be working as well: “I’m still exploring the code to see what else is new.”

Although the button is currently not listed on Facebook’s developer site as a social plugin, Waddington said that the Want button would only work on Open Graph projects with under the tag “products.”

Waddington tried to install the Want button onto his blog, but received an error message in the process.

“The button displays on the site, but clicking it shows an error message,” Waddington said. “Facebook hasn’t enabled any apps to publish Wants yet.”

Facebook hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment. Waddington’s discovery was first noted by Inside Facebook on Thursday.

The Want app would allow the company to collect a lot of information about member interests, just as the Like button already does. The move would also allow merchants greater integration with Facebook without having to build their own apps or platforms.

“E-commerce sites could increase social exposure by including a Want button,” Waddington said. “It will not require authorizing an app and will publish a “user wants product’ story in the news feed.”

He added that apps users authorize will likely be able to access the “wanted” products through the API, so Facebook could provide a universal wish list.

“If Facebook allows sites to include prices and product data such as ISBN numbers, then it will become really powerful,” he added.

Would you be interested in seeing a Want button on the site? How do you think it could impact the retail industry? Let us know in the comments.

Facebook Travel App Gogobot Hits 1 Million Registered Users

Facebook social travel app Gogobot announced on Wednesday that it has reached the 1 million registered users mark.

The app launched on Facebook in January, when the social network unveiled a slew of integrated apps, including Gogobot. Gogobot was in use before that time, launching in private beta 18 month ago. Now the app is exploding in popularity: A new user joins every 15 seconds, more than 5 million places have been shared on Gogobot and overall membership has grown 65x year-on-year.

The social travel site lets you share your vacation photos with friends and strangers on the site. You can give recommendations to people who post questions regarding travel or destinations you may have been to. Users can also create a “passport” listing places they’ve been and include reviews and recommendations of spots to visit. Create trip itineraries or search trips other users have shared to get a better perspective on things to do on your vacation.

Gogobot also launched the latest version of its free app in the iTunes store for iPhone and iPod Touch. This latest version allows users to comment on postcards, plus adds a richer search experience, including the ability to search for restaurants by cuisine and attractions by distance.

CEO and Founder Travis Katz told Mashable back in January that he created Gogobot out of his desire to collect travel recommendation and information from friends, rather than sifting through impersonal guide books.

Do you use Gogobot? What do you think of it? Tell us in the comments.

Have Facebook? You Can Now Check In to the Future With Forecast

Foursquare tells people where you are. A new mobile app called Forecast, which is opening to Facebook users on Tuesday, instead tells them where you will be.

Here’s how the free app for iPhone and Android works: Users make “Forecasts” that include what they plan to do and what time. Those Forecasts are broadcast to their friends, and can serve as informal invitations to join.

Friends can accept them by clicking a “me too” button, and when they arrive, they can check in the same way that they do on Foursquare. Pinnell says more than 80% of forecasts are followed through to the check-in.

“The special thing about the future is that it hasn’t happened yet,” explains CEO René J. Pinnell, “which means you can change it.”

This thing is especially special to advertisers.

It’s the reason that Google makes so much money off of search ads. When advertisers can reach people at a time they are making a decision, like searching for a dentist or declaring their desire to go out for pizza, they can influence that decision. Targeted deals and suggestions for complementary activities are both business models that work nicely with the future checkin.

For this reason, Forecast isn’t alone in its pursuit of what I call the “preemptive checkin”. Ditto, Hotlist and Crowdbeacon are just a few others.

None of these, however, dominates the concept in the same way Foursquare dominates the real-time checkin.

Pinnell says that about 100,000 beta users have signed up to use the app, which launched in beta after his previous app, a group messaging app for planning parties called Hurricane Party, failed to translate well outside of South by Southwest, where it launched.

Currently, it’s only been available to Foursquare users. In time for South by Southwest 2012, Forecast is opening the app up to Facebook users as well — a much bigger potential userbase.

Will you join? Let us know why or why not in the comments.