Facebook’s Blackberry app has been non-functional ever since the release of the new Facebook layout. The app does not seem to refresh the news feed at all. However, this is not the only problem – the Blackberry app seems to be a perfect example of what a crappy piece of mobile application looks like.
Even before the stream refresh problem, the application did not have had any video support. Blackberry users were unable to view Youtube videos embedded in the news feeds. Although the app support video transfer, video transfer was totally absent.
Another major issue is the loading time, the application refreshes the Friends List everytime you decide to boot the application – making users suffer painful delays.
If that’s not all, the fact that Blackberry’s native address book is not integrated with Facebook – is an utter disgrace for RIM, who have designed the app. The Blackberry’s native contacts should be automatically synched with Facebook friends – or if not at least they should be suggested if they have a Facebook presence.
Its about time that RIM gets its act together and develop some usable application for Facebook. Or else, the Blackberry users would soon be missing from the list of millions of mobile users accessing Facebook on the go.
Editor’s Note: The Facebook for Blackberry application is actually the third most popular application on Facebook based on daily active users (8.3 million daily users). While there are clear errors, the Blackberry community has fully embraced the Facebook application which emphasizes how important it is for the company to fix the remaining app solutions.
Update
Facebook reached out to us with the following statement: “On Wednesday we experienced issues with our APIs, and as a result, some users were unable to access the site from their devices. These APIs are designed to make it possible for mobile partners to provide users with their respective Facebook applications.
The issue was quickly resolved and Facebook users on all mobile devices are now able to access the Facebook application.”
Painfully slow is an understatement.
Comment by Facebook User — February 11, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
I disagree partly with your review.
#1 It's NOT been "non-functional" for me after the new layout release, I've posted updates, photos and links without any issues.
I'm on my 3rd Blackberry runnng facebook, and each time, the fb contact list integrated with my personal contact list on my Blackberry, thought this was very cool.
#2 The friends list doesn't refresh everytime I use the app, I consider myself a super facebook user and don't experience this problem
#3 Do agree with problems with news feed after release of new layout last week but I still can read news feed and status updates and post
#4 I watch videos posted to facebook, from youtube, no issues. Just tried it again before I sent this, no issues!
I am currently using Blackberry Tour, maybe you are using an older model Blackberry.
Comment by Cheryle — February 11, 2010 @ 10:00 pm
one more thing, just looked down at my Blackberry, news feed is working just fine!
Comment by Cheryle — February 11, 2010 @ 10:01 pm
Agreed, cannot check the inbox either.
Comment by Mark — February 11, 2010 @ 10:43 pm
I think it is unreasonable to expect video
Comment by linto — February 11, 2010 @ 10:11 pm
no doubt…fix this pile of junk. wah wah wah…but seriously it sucks!!!1!!
Comment by andy — February 11, 2010 @ 10:21 pm
I thought I was the only one! It did integrate with my address book, at least I think it did, facebook pics showed up in my address book
Comment by Beth — February 11, 2010 @ 10:29 pm
Typically I’d be on Facebook through my BB everyday, but now since the update I’ve not used my Mobile once to access the site. Horrible I tell you.
I’m generally disappointed with the BB Storm anyways, I will be upgrading to something better down the road abit. So whether or not RIM gets their act together doesn’t really worry me too much since I won’t be with BB anymore anyways.
Comment by Bryce Wisekal — February 11, 2010 @ 10:32 pm
The Fb app just crashed my blackberry. Verizon replaced it with no questions asked.
Comment by Nervous FB User — February 11, 2010 @ 10:38 pm
I use the Snaptu application on my Blackberry – which includes various social media applications. Their Facebook application is great.
Comment by Sandra — February 12, 2010 @ 1:01 am
Mine actually started working again a couple of days ago. It is slow, but generally functional.
The thing that hasn't worked for me in months is the notifications. No updates at all of activity (comments on posts, etc.). Until today. I just got a spam Facebook notification on my BB FB app. From "Best Medical Shop" advertising Percocet and Adderall.
It doesn't appear on my Facebook web interface at all.
Comment by Jack D — February 12, 2010 @ 4:26 am
News feed works fine for me. But I do agree that the app is slow. The Friend list takes a good 5 minutes to load.
Comment by Prig — February 12, 2010 @ 4:49 am
Just use http://touch.facebook.com.
Comment by Facebook User — February 12, 2010 @ 6:19 am
Devil's advocate position here:
Problems aside….has anyone considered that maybe it plays perfectly into the strength of the BlackBerry platform? Push notification when something happens in your network and the ability to quickly read and respond in your social life (as opposed to your business life with the email app). It's all about COMMUNICATION. The BB isn't a multimedia device, and RIM hasn't made a great effort to take it that way.
I don't have any hard statistics but I would guess that if you looked at the engagement of BB users vs. other phone platforms on Facebook Mobile it would be through the roof just because of the push notification and simple interface.
I do know that my SMS usage took a dive when I had a BlackBerry and this app is the one thing (THE ONLY THING) I still miss since switching to a Palm Pre. I would say that Facebook has RIM to thank for any mobile presence at all.
Comment by Erik Wullschleger — February 12, 2010 @ 6:47 am
@sandra – thanks for the snaptu recommendation, just downloaded it and deleted the FB app. @jack D – w/in the last week I was getting random spam too – annoying. Haven't been able to upload photos for a while and it's just too darn slow.
Comment by Sara — February 12, 2010 @ 7:22 am
It's not Facebook's Blackberry app… it's RIM's Facebook app.
Comment by Colin Carmichael — February 12, 2010 @ 7:34 am
Yeah, I don't even use the app. It sucks balls.
Comment by ellelimon — February 12, 2010 @ 7:25 pm
Not only is the FB app slow, and painful to retrieve news feeds, friends lists, or photo albums; I haven’t been able to upload photos from my Blackberry Curve directly to FB since I loaded v.1.7.0.22 via AppWorld.
I now use the mobile web interface for 99% of my FB use, because the FB app is too slow. I’d prefer to use the FB app, but I just can’t bring myself to do it consistently.
Comment by Facebook User — February 13, 2010 @ 3:12 am
the app is horrible.. it has no fan page support either
Comment by ariel — February 15, 2010 @ 12:41 am
I don't use the app, I use mobile web which has gotten worse and worse with each facebook update. You can't "like" anything on the app and it really seems unorganized.
Comment by Laura — February 15, 2010 @ 4:20 am
I'm really not impressed with the BB app either, and you can count me amongst the people who doesn't *want* a social media app presuming to screw with my address book.
In fact, it doesn't, though I don't remember whether that's cause I told it not to, or not.
Comment by Baylink — February 17, 2010 @ 8:08 pm
It is really bad. You cannot actually fully use facebook through this application. You cannot search for new freinds. You cannot tag friends in your status. You can’t share links to facebook while you are actually visiting a webpage which to me seems like an obvious information need. It can however send the address of a webpage but it appears as just a one line, sometimes unclickable, link. If I need to delete a comment I have to log into the site via web. Also, the picture viewing and option of commenting is ridiculous.
No chat options.
Are there any other facebook apps for bb? Or any plans for fb to upgrade?
There are so many twitter apps I’m surprised I can’t find another fb one.
Comment by hannah — February 24, 2010 @ 6:43 am
This is a horrible review of the Facebook app for Blackberry. First, RIM created the app, it was not designed by Facebook to run on Blackberry devices. Second, the main reason this app is deemed not functional is because the benchmark for Facebook apps has become the iPhone app. While the iPhone app is great, it's designed for the iPhone not a Blackberry.
I've now had this app on 3 different Blackberries (Storm 9530 & 9550, Curve 8520) and all function 3 as intended. The news feeds refresh as they should and there wasn't a long lag time. I've never had an issue viewing a Youtube video in which you click on the link and it opens the Youtube app for viewing; that is what it supposed to do and it does it everytime without problems. The friend list refresh doesn't have a painful lag time; within the app's options, a user can select to not have the friend list refresh if they choose to not have any lag time at all – it will retain the friend list that you had on last refresh. Again, if you check within the options of the app, you can integrate with your address book/calendar – and RIM rightfully so made this an option; not all users want their address book/calendar synced with Facebook.
RIM is about push notification. They have pioneered and continue to improve on the phone's strong point. If all a person needs a phone for is Facebook and social networking then an iPhone should be their phone of choice. If a person needs a workhorse and the ability to use social networking apps then a Blackberry will be their phone of choice. In writing articles like this it's important to first analyze why a user would choose this type of device in the first place because chances are most Blackberry users will tell you that apps are not why they have a Blackberry.
Comment by Lucy — March 4, 2010 @ 6:14 am
I have an odd problem, if someone makes a suggestion, I'm certainly interested. I have fb for bb on my curve. I usually see my friends fb profile photos in my bb address book when I open a name to call them. On a few names however, I cannot see their pic. I previously could and haven't changed any settings, so what gives. Further, I can see almost all of my contacts fb profile photos, so it's driving me a bit nuts.
Comment by Michael H. — March 4, 2010 @ 6:35 pm
the worst app ever..why do we continue to download it!??
Comment by ariel — March 31, 2010 @ 10:09 am
For the past month I've been unable to post ANY mobile photos. I am always getting the message "A connection cannot be established with the Facebook server". The application refreshes and I can send updates but I no longer can send photos. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the application and everything else that's supposed to fix the problem. Big POS.
Comment by Andrew — April 14, 2010 @ 6:16 pm
Help…i'm a novice facebook user. I can't seem to delete the News Feeds from my bb Bold. Any and all help would be appreciated. Tina
Comment by Tina — April 15, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
Never had an issue till a week ago and now I get no notifications at all unless I go to the mobile site.
Comment by Gary — April 19, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
cannot upload or post photos on bb curve from what i read
from other users the problem seems to be across all
Comment by hopalong — May 25, 2010 @ 7:36 pm
Re: Editor’s Note: The Facebook for Blackberry application is actually the third most popular application on Facebook based on daily active users
Just because daily active users are stuck with an application doesn't necessarily imply the app is good. Far from it.. We're simply stuck with this as the only application that works at the moment. sigh. Its bad. Terribly bad.
Comment by Mike — May 31, 2010 @ 4:34 pm
Well, my fb worked fine before the new version upload. Now, i cannot share, and most importantly, do not even know when someone sent a message to me! Cannot check messages (only notifications, and they do not show any messages; it is usually someone's birthday, or a message that something did not work out, like "user isnot online", and could not "like" something). Crappy crappy crappy, and even though I uploaded from FB I really dont care who made the app:fb or rim. Just fix the freaking thing. I wanna go back to the old one! (How?)
Comment by Mellie — October 14, 2010 @ 8:14 am
It's worse than useless. No feed refreshing, and the irritating notifications still show even if you log out (and have selected no notifications). Uninstalled it. Won't use it until they make it functional.
Comment by anni — December 11, 2010 @ 6:47 am
I use a bb storm with the fb app. Every day it says I have new notificaitons that are repeats (and repeats) (and repeats) of old notifications. The funtionality of the app is poor – I prefer to access fb via the web browser/mobile version. The news feeds are not refreshed, it is common not to get a connection, and youtube links rarely work. On the mobile version, the print is smaller, but it looks and functions more like the real fb.
Comment by RebeccaBB — December 30, 2010 @ 5:35 pm
I agree!!!!!
Comment by mully — January 5, 2011 @ 3:52 pm
my news feed does not refresh and whenever i try to log out it always freezes this is the wrost app ever i wish i could download the old facebook
Comment by hello — August 19, 2011 @ 1:36 am
Ever since i downloaded the new version of facebook on my blackberry, my phone has been giving strange errors to a point its not even funtional anymore! i cant use any thing that is linked to internet, text messages, phone calls or even taking pictures.. it took me a week to figure out the problem, and still trying to fix my phone.. Due to this will wait a while till i will download the facebook app again.
Comment by joe — August 21, 2011 @ 1:20 pm