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Yesterday I received a message from someone who was frustrated because they could no longer upload photos via email. When they attempted to send from their iPhone they received the following message: “Sorry, we cannot support uploads sent via email. Upload photos from your iPhone with our free application, Facebook for iPhone:
[link to application]“.
My initial response was to ask if he had an iPhone and if he did why he wasn’t using the Facebook application. He admitted that he did but brought up a good point about why Facebook should enable uploading via email even with the availability of an application. The main reason to enable the service was to make it possible to upload the photo to many sites via one upload.
While I can in someway understand Facebook’s position of wanting to drive as many users as possible to install the application, flexibility is key. Even the people that want to upload their images via email most likely have the Facebook application also. The individual that contacted me about uploading photos admitted to having the application but said he just wanted to have the ability to upload to multiple sites.
It’s really not that big of a change and while Facebook may want to lock people into using their application, it’s a fairly restrictive model. Is Facebook going to re-enable upload via email? I’m skeptical of it but it would be the right thing to do. Personally, Facebook Photos is my primary image storage location but many people like to also share via Flickr. How do you store your photos? Did you noticed that Facebook removed iPhone email uploads or do you use the application to upload photos?
If the user wants to upload to multiple sites, why not use Shozu?
http://www.shozu.com/portal/tour.do?refid=iphone
Shozu is supported on loads of mobile handsets and is also supported by numerous websites including Facebook and Flickr..
I use SwirlyMMS to send an MMS of my pix to facebook’s email and many other sites that allow e-mail uploading of images (e.g. Flickr, TwitPic). In order to install SwirlyMMS, an iPhone has to be jailbroken.
Hmm… Well, I always upload using the iPhone Facebook app, I didn’t realize I could use email, so naturally I wouldn’t notice that it no longer can (I say, as I post here using my iPhone).
uh, i’m still able to upload via email i did it last weekend just fine.
I am pretty upset about this, I had an email address setup that would upload to all my accounts and websites. Now facebook will not allow it. That is ludicrous.
I used to be able to send one email to Flickr and Facebook from the iphone with a picture attached, and it would be uploaded to both sites at once: easily, quickly.
It’s much quicker, when I’ve just taken a photo, to be able to tap “email photo” from the photo browser than to have to exit photos, load facebook app, navigate to “add photo” button, browse to the picture, and upload it that way.
I -do- have the iphone facebook app installed. I -do- love that I can caption and even tag photos as I upload them from the iphone in the app. These are wonderful features that I would be asking for if they weren’t there. BUT I don’t want to be forced into using one workflow when another is appropriate, faster, easier for my needs.
Thanks for this article, helped!
Johnny
I was extremely upset when I first received the email from facebook telling me that I had to use their mobile application to upload pictures. I feel this way for multiple reasons:
1) The facebook app has been buggy since its release in the app store, and continues to be. I am not exaggerating in saying that 50% of the time that I try to use the app it either malfunctions or crashes altogether. I find that the webapp is far more reliable, and thus, find emailing a picture I have taken with just a few clicks to be much easier than closing the camera app, opening facebook, waiting for it to sync, opening the camera function, selecting a photo from small thumbnails without being able to preview it in a larger size (as in the native photo app), then wait while the slow, inadequate facebook app uploads the picture. This renders my iphone useless for at least a couple minutes, where as when I email a picture, i can go back to the camera and take more pictures while it uploads. - i know that was long, but i hope it captures one facet of my frustration with facebook’s decision.
2- Like others have posted, I use other social networking sites besides facebook, which i have been drawn to to meet needs as facebook continues to become less relevant to my and many of my friends liking. while apps like shozu were mentioned by some people above as being a good solution to upload to multiple sites, it still requires me to close the camera app and open another. firing off an email to facebook, brightkite and other sites i use all at once, with a simple caption in the subject box was incredibly convenient for many users.
The removal of this function only brings facebook one step closer to becoming as much of my past as myspace (which i never really got into) is to many people.
Ease of use is key when it comes to technology- having multiple ways of uploading a picture, in the case of facebook, simplifies mobile uploads for many ‘advanced’ users. eliminating it will only eliminate them.
My favourite solution here for multiple photo postings is to use Pixelpipe.com and they have an easy to use iPhone app. They even have a button that fits the Picasa API so you can multiple post from Picasa. Fits my needs nicely.
Andrew
The problem with uploading to multiple sites thru the Web or an app is that you’ve got to reveal your password to all your sites to all the uploading site. Much safer & easier to do it by email. Facebook is killing themselves with this & other dopey decisions.
This is extremely annoying and the end result is that I upload pictures to Facebook less frequently.
If the goal is simply to get people to download the Facebook app, then fine… if someone uses the Facebook app like I do, automatically permit them to upload by email as well.
This is similar to the annoying need to have to reconfirm my mobile number every month to receive notifications. No one else asks for this.