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Facebook app will soon display new content & allow comments even when you’re offline

Customers compare an Apple Inc. iPhone 6, left, and iPhone 6 plus during the sales launch at an Apple store in Palo Alto, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Apple Inc.'s stores attracted long lines of shoppers for the debut of the latest iPhones, indicating healthy demand for the bigger-screen smartphones. The larger iPhone 6 Plus is already selling out at some stores across the U.S. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Modern ironies: a metro or train journey is one of those occasions when you have some time to catch up on your Facebook feed, but you often have no data connection or a very intermittent one. The company is currently testing a couple of features that should help.

The first is caching posts that have been downloaded but not yet viewed. When you’re offline, the app will display these posts.

We look at all the previously downloaded stories present on your phone that you have not yet viewed, and rank them based on their relevance. We also factor in whether the images for the story are available. This way we can immediately display relevant stories you haven’t seen yet, instead of showing a spinner while you wait for new stories.

Second, it will allow you to comment on posts even when offline, storing your comments in the app and then uploading them once you’re back online.

There’s no indication on when we’ll see the new features, but the fact that Facebook is sharing them suggests that they are likely to be introduced sooner rather than later.

Via Engadget. Photo startuppanel.co.

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Facebook tells its iOS users to continue expecting app updates every 4 weeks

Screen Shot 2014-08-01 at 9.51.10 AM

If you’re an avid Facebook user on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, the social networking giant has some good news for you. In yesterday’s 13.0 update, Facebook informs users that app updates with speed and performance enhancements will be arriving every four weeks. That’s about monthly. New features and other enhancements will come along the way, Facebook says, and those changes will be noted appropriately. Facebook seems to want users to get the latest iOS app updates as soon as possible, so it is recommending that users enable iOS 7’s Automatic Downloads feature via the iOS Settings app. A couple of years ago, Facebook said it would be bringing new updates to its mobile applications every 4-8 weeks, but this marks the first time that Facebook is actively notifying users of this development approach. Facebook seems to have begun monthly updates around February, but at least we now know the company has no intention of stopping that pattern.


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Facebook rolling out new location-sharing feature for iPhone called Nearby Friends

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Facebook Nearby Friends

Facebook announced today it will be rolling out a new social feature to its mobile app called Nearby Friends. The feature allows Facebook users to occasionally receive notifications when common friends are in similar locations similar to features offered by Foursquare and Apple’s Find My Friends service.

If you turn on Nearby Friends, you’ll occasionally be notified when friends are nearby, so you can get in touch with them and meet up. For example, when you’re headed to the movies, Nearby Friends will let you know if friends are nearby so you can see the movie together or meet up afterward.


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