Facebook Rolls Out Incremental Google Android Update To All Users, Pushes For Silent Update Feature


Facebook Silent Update for Android

Nothing excites us more than incremental updates of social apps for mobile devices. Then again we live and breath social media. On Wednesday Facebook announced one of those ‘incremental’ updates for Google Android users.

Available now through the Google Play store the new updates allows users to change their profile pictures directly from the app. Facebook users are also able to easily manage spam and unwanted stories from within the apps News Feed output.

Facebook with its new Android release also access group messaging access, a feature that was sorely missing on the previous Android app.

In the meantime, Facebook on Friday began testing a new “silent updates” feature which auto updates a users Facebook app whenever their is an update available and the users phone is connected over WiFi. Once the download is completed a user is asked to install the update.

There was a problem with the silent update feature, some Facebook users complained that the app constantly notified them until they chose to complete the upgrade.

Facebook is using silent updates to ensure that its app is always up to date. Facebook claims the feature is necessary so users do not receive a broken experience.

When users download the newest version of the Facebook app the company asks for permission to “download files without notification” which allows the silent update feature to go live.

There is an advantage to the silent update program, Facebook can choose to update a small percentage of users in beta testing. On its web platform Facebook slowly rolls out new features for testing purposes. Unfortunately mobile devices have never allowed Facebook to test mobile apps on a small percentage of devices at a single time.

Do you think Facebook’s new features and silent update feature are a move in the right direction for FB?


Kossi

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