Facebook for iPhone 3.0 – Full Tour & First Impressions (w/ Screenshots)
Facebook for iPhone 3.0 has been submitted to Apple and is awaiting approval any minute now, but we have an advance copy and have been testing it this morning.
Version 3.0, which has been in development for months, adds a number of new features and improvements to what has become one of the most heavily used iPhone applications ever – nearly 12 million people around the world use Facebook for iPhone each month. But without further ado, let’s take a look at all the new features:
1. Full News Feed Interaction, with Likes and Comments
Facebook for iPhone includes the “new” News Feed that’s been live on Facebook for a few months, including comments and likes.
You can easily comment or like on feed items in the stream as well.
Checking out comments and likes in detail is also easy:
2. Full Support for Facebook Pages
One major improvement in Facebook for iPhone 3.0 is the new full support for Pages. Now, you can check out any Page just like you can any personal profile, and Page owners can post status updates or Photos directly from the iPhone. You can also become a fan of a Page.
3. New Home Page Navigation
Perhaps the biggest navigational change to Facebook for iPhone is the new home page. Users are given the following buttons by default, but you can add your own friends and Pages starting on the second page. The new “button array” is a really helpful way to get around the app, and these may be made fully editable in future versions.
4. See Upcoming Events and RSVP
Several new features around Facebook events were added in Facebook for iPhone 3.0. Now, you can view upcoming events, check out details for a specific event, and RSVP.
5. Video Uploading
Of course, many users and application developers will be excited to hear that video uploading is now also included for iPhone 3GS owners. It’s really easy – and behaves just like photo uploading. You can do it right from your profile Page on the iPhone. Here’s how it looks – once uploaded, videos go directly onto your Facebook profile.
6. Complete Photo Management
Now, users can create and delete albums, upload photos to any album, delete photos, and delete photo tags. It’s a big improvement over Facebook for iPhone 2.0, which had pretty limited photo management capabilities. You can also now change your profile picture and zoom into photos.
7. Write Notes and Read Your Friends’ Notes
That about says it all. The interface is simple and there’s no tagging, but you can now post Notes.
8. And More
In addition, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 also adds the ability to:
- View friends’ birthdays
- Visit links in a built-in web browser
- See all of your friends’ friends and Pages
- See mutual friends
- Easily search for people and Pages
What’s Missing
While Facebook for iPhone includes many major new features, some things aren’t yet included in the new version:
- Push Notifications – Lead developer Joe Hewitt says full push support will be included in version 3.1.
- Hiding people from the News Feed – While you can do this on Facebook.com, you can’t yet do it on 3.0.
- Event Walls are not yet accessible – Although you can RSVP, you can’t write on event walls.
- Videos are not yet playable inside 3.0
- The app can only be used in Portrait mode – though Hewitt says Landscape mode is coming soon
- Application Integration – While application notifications are accessible, clicking them takes you into full browser mode inside the new Facebook app. Applications invitations are not accessible.
Conclusion
All in all, 3.0 is a major improvement that makes it easier to interact with friends in the feed, post rich content to profiles and Pages, and navigate Facebook more easily. Facebook for iPhone is a very meaty application – for instance, it also includes full Facebook Chat integration – and there are a lot of valuable little features under the hood.
When version 3.0 goes live, we’re likely to see many more Facebook Page administrators updating their Pages through their iPhones, many more mobile videos posted to user profiles, and much more feed interaction (comments and likes) happening while users are on the go. It’s a great step forward for users and businesses, and many people are already clamoring for more features for version 3.1


















August 18th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
[...] Facebook for iPhone 3.0 – Full Tour & First Impressions (w/ Screenshots) [...]
August 18th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Is it possible to change profile picture with this new version?
August 18th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Shame it doesn’t have push notifications but great update regardless, I’ve been using Safari more lately due to the limitations of the current Facebook app so hopefully this will fix that..
August 18th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
great
defo getting it for my iTouch
August 18th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
It looks sooo sexy! might have to start using my iphone again
August 18th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Yes, you can change your profile picture with the new version.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I’m waiting patiently! How awesome to be able to manage fan pages on the iPhone.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
What about copy/cut/paste? Is that supported the entire app, not just in text fields?
August 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
what about the applications ? will they work on iphone ?
August 18th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
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August 19th, 2009 at 4:53 am
[...] Tour Facebook’s new iPhone app [Inside Facebook] [...]
August 19th, 2009 at 5:33 am
I’m excited about this, but wondering about uploading video to Fan pages. We just got 3G in our area and I’ve been using mobile video uploads to update a lot of my social efforts. This would cap this app off for us!
August 19th, 2009 at 6:09 am
[...] Facebook for iPhone 3.0 – Full Tour & First Impressions [...]
August 19th, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] (AAPL) Facebook’s new iPhone app is coming soon. If it is as slick as it looks in a newly published set of screenshots, it could spell doom for [...]
August 19th, 2009 at 10:20 am
[...] Podeis leer acerca de ello en: Inside Facebook [...]
August 19th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
This is good because the current version of FB for the iPhone is so bad. I end up navigating FB thru the web (and not the mobile version either).
August 20th, 2009 at 9:16 am
[...] of the Facebook for iPhone 3.0 app have appeared, courtesy [...]
August 20th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Is it here yet?
How bout now?
August 21st, 2009 at 6:11 am
Please Apple, I am going on Vacation and can’t survive without access to my facebook pages!
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 am
OK Apple, would you hurry up and approve?!!
The world has been waiting for this breakthrough long enough!:) (who needs patience any more?)
@kickofftopic
August 25th, 2009 at 11:22 am
[...] been 10 days since Facebook submitted the new Facebook for iPhone 3.0 application to Apple for review, but contrary to what one might expect, Apple doesn’t appear [...]
August 25th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Great.
What about “search”? Is it still limited to our friends?
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
[...] new, 3.0 version of Facebook’s popular iPhone application went live last week. It looked great, but it [...]
September 4th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Hello friend
how r u….
October 28th, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] the best way to update your Pages using a mobile phone is to use Facebook’s iPhone 3.0 app. The app has integrated Page management functionality – something that even m.facebook.com (Facebook’s mobile web service) doesn’t [...]
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