Facebook Promising July Fix to Slow, Crash-Happy iOS App

[Michael Essany]

I can connect faster to Facebook on dial-up today than I can some days through the social network's iOS app.

So fed up with app glitches and bugs are Facebook's mobile users that many have flooded the social networking giant with complaints and urgent demands to make the app run better. Well, it now appears that Facebook heard your frustrated cries for help. And a major fix is coming next month.

Two sources well placed inside of the company tell The New York Times that Facebook is working overtime to ready the update for roll-out in July. And it can't possibly come soon enough. As of this writing, 21,000 of the 38,000 people who have reviewed the iOS Facebook app have given it just one star.

Two Facebook engineers "who asked not be named" tell the NYT that Facebook has completely rebuilt its iOS application. And this time around, it's built for speed.

One of the Facebook engineers said the new application has been built primarily using Objective-C, the programming language used to build applications for iOS. Many of the components of the current version of the Facebook app are built using HTML5, the Web-based markup language

The author of the piece claims to have already tested out the revamped app. His assessment: "It is fast. Blazing fast."

Sounds good to me.

Source: NYT

[xXDrizzyyXx]

It's about time.

[feidhlim1986]

When will MMi promise a fix to their slow crash happy app? Facebook app and MMi app are the only two apps that ever crash on my iPhone 3GS or iPad 3

[teej1410]

When will MMi promise a fix to their slow crash happy app? Facebook app and MMi app are the only two apps that ever crash on my iPhone 3GS or iPad 3

Yeah do agree the ModMyi app only crashes when I open it sometimes, but it also needs to be updated to fix some bugs like typing blind because I can't scroll down and keep it that way, which I am currently doing.

[c0dy]

When will MMi promise a fix to their slow crash happy app? Facebook app and MMi app are the only two apps that ever crash on my iPhone 3GS or iPad 3

lol I gave up on the MMi app a long long time ago.

[znbl]

When will MMi promise a fix to their slow crash happy app? Facebook app and MMi app are the only two apps that ever crash on my iPhone 3GS or iPad 3

I can't speak to the MMi app, but I've never had the Facebook app crash. I don't use it terribly often, but I do use it from time to time and have yet to see it crash. Those of you who have had to crash, what exactly were you doing, what page/section were you on, what did you click?

[Silverado1987]

I've never had a problem with Facebook or mmi!

[jbardi]

lol I gave up on the MMi app a long long time ago.

Same here... Uninstalled MMi a long time ago... Ironically, the Facebook app has never crashed on my iPhone 4 or my New iPad, and runs pretty fast, so I don't quite understand all the whining complaints. Maybe those that experience these problems are spending too much time cooped up inside their bedroom chatting with online people instead of getting out there and actually meeting them. Any app you keep running in the background for hours on end for fear you will miss something someone may or may not post is bound to crash at somepoint.

[KraXik]

Yeah do agree the ModMyi app only crashes when I open it sometimes, but it also needs to be updated to fix some bugs like typing blind because I can't scroll down and keep it that way, which I am currently doing.

Yep. Agree. The MMi app is pretty bad.

It's funny though that a few months back the staff all picked their favourite apps and all picked MMi in their top 10, but it's awful!!!

They need to add the 'thanks' button aswell.

[celeron]

Finally! The FB app sucks, it's an insult to iOS. They should learn from Twitter app.

[2k1]

Lol cel I agree with ya I been on twitter ever since Facebook changed there's up so freaking slow bah.

[i.Annie]

I really can't fathom that FB, such a horrid app, can be one of the apps I use the most. I want to use FB but the app is flat-out horrible. What kind of app requires you to pull to update on initial launch when it should already be updated upon launching? Maybe it's just me but that's the problem I have with it. Hopefully this "fix" will fix that too, not just the speed of the app.

[plumoso]

Modmyi need a serious update. I gave up in the app long time ago I got iPhone 4,4s,iPad 2 and 3 and is not good and all my 4 I devices

[sziklassy]

I honestly haven't had issues with facebook crashing. It certainly is slow and sometimes doesn't even load anything at all. When that happens I generally have to kill it in the task tray and reload. Twice I have had to uninstall and reinstall the app. Oh how I wish crashes were my only problem!

I really can't fathom that FB, such a horrid app, can be one of the apps I use the most.

By your own admission that ap isn't terrible enough to keep you from your facebook addiction, apparently. :P

For most things, there is intelliscreen x. Unfortunately that does not allow for photo uploads.

[evolution83]

I'll believe it when it's released. This isn't the first time the app has been "rebuilt" and still contained many bugs.

[Susty]

Hahaha, I stuck to using Opera browser & logging into facebook that way... No surprise that it's stupidly quicker as it does away with all the massive timeline pictures

[Zokunei]

I only use the Facebook app for less than ten minutes a day and have had it crash quite a few times. It's definitely slow. The MMi app doesn't perform much worse than any other app. I think most of its problems are missing features and interface bugs. It does crash whenever you try to change preferences though, and that needs to be fixed.

[Cer0]

Hopefully they are making an actual app a little more than just an app that is a html front from the mobile site anyway.

Sort of sounds like that is what they are planning.

[yearoftherat]

Probably rebuilt with more hidden security issues...

[H4CK3R]

The current FB app sucks. It's about time they fix it.