Today, Facebook released an updated iOS app, Facebook 5.0, that was rebuilt from the ground up to be optimized for iOS devices like iPhone and iPad.
The original version of Facebook's iOS app was essentially the site's HTML5 website wrapped around a mobile application. It took forever to launch, was difficult to navigate and was also generally very slow.
Facebook 5.0 runs smoother, launches quickly and, most importantly, is slightly more organized. Pages also scroll more quickly and a banner at the top of the page lets the user know when their friends have made new posts. Tapping this update banner once also reveals the latest posts chronologically instead of the old method that tried to guess what would be most relevant to you.
Photos also now load instantly and tapping on them now launches them right away.
Most of the changes have been made to the application's back end and esthetically it looks nearly identical to Facebook's old iOS app.
There is no word yet on if the company plans to revamp Facebook's Android application.
Facebook's stock was up slightly on Thursday after hitting an all-time low on Wednesday morning. Facebook acknowledged in their IPO filing that mobile presents a significant threat to the company's business model since ads could not be displayed on the old version of the mobile application. While the updated iOS application doesn't currently carry any advertising, it could be a move on the company's behalf to finally begin to monetize the mobile experience.
The updated app can be found on Apple's App Store or through the software update function on iPhones and iPads.
