Facebook 3.0 for iPhone has arrived, what’s new?

Many people have been waiting for the Facebook 3.0 update on the iPhone. Its available in the App Store now and therefore the major question that has to be answered is: What’s new? Will it improve the Facebook experience when using the iPhone? The bottom line answer is yes. Facebook 3.0 offers you a completely new Facebook experience on the iPhone. I will describe some of the main new features.

1. Great overview of your friends’ activities

The most obvious change you will experience directly is the clear overview of the most recent updates, the “News Feed“, by your friends. Compare it to the Facebook sidebar tool for your Internet browser. In one view you can see the updates of your friends. Interactivity can be very high with your friends, because you can directly comment on their updates. This feature really works nice and for sure stimulates interaction more than the previous version did.

2. Quick access to all functionality

The main page which you can always reach with the button on the top left corner, gives a clear overview of all the possibilities. The menu items give you instant access to your news feed, profile, friends, inbox, chat, requests, events, photos and notes. If you like you can easily add more shortcuts to i.e. your favorite friends and pages. Your “fan pages” can be found under the “Friends” main menu, you only will have to change the “tab”.

3. The ease of sending an update, with pictures!

On top of the “News Feed” and within your “Profile” area you can easily update your status, including uploading pictures. Attaching pictures to an update is a great new feature as well. Especially these features bring the new Facebook 3.0 closer to Twitter.

4. Friends phone directory could become the killer app

One of the best new features is the ability to call and SMS your Facebook friends directly from the app. This functionality is a bit hidden, just tap a friend in your friends’ list that shows up with a phone indicator. This address book integration is very handy, although in my list many phone numbers are still missing. Probably till this moment many people didn’t provide this information. I predict that this is going to change soon.

Conclusions

The new Facebook 3.0 is a major improvement compared to the previous iPhone application. It enables interaction, let’s you update your own status and makes communicating with your friends very easy. In my opinion it shows Facebook’s ambition to become the leading world wide communication platform. In my next post you can read about my personal experiences with Facebook 3.0 for iPhone and how it changed my opinion. I am curious about your experiences, feel free to share them below, or meet and discuss on Facebook or through Twitter via @GOYELLO or @PetersOpinion.