Revamped Facebook app for iOS: Review

Slow and steady wins the race is history. The need for speed is the need of the hour not just for techies, but users everywhere. Facebook has finally realised this fact and updated its iOS client to version 5, which has bid adieu to HTML 5 and says hello to Objective-C.

The social networking app is now twice as fast with Photos, News Feed and the app itself launching quicker than ever. With this update, iPad users can now access the Timeline profile view.

The app has been built from scratch over the past nine months to bring a major performance improvement. We take a detailed look at what's new under the hood.

Now when you launch the app, it opens in the blink of an eye as opposed to earlier when you would continue to stare at the logo for a couple of seconds at least. It directly opens into the News Feed, which is more responsive and speedier than before. The navigation bar now slides out with a punch.

All the options in the sidebar like Messages, Events, Groups, App Center and others now load smoother and faster. Coming to News Feed, you can now scroll through stories in a breeze. The refresh rate is faster too. If you're in the midst of reading stories, new updates published by friends will appear in a banner on top of the screen as "New Stories". A "New Comments" bar will also show up immediately when you're browsing though individual posts.

Photos is another area where the app truly delivers. Apart from the fact that Photos now load faster, elements from Facebook's standalone Camera app are clearly visible when it comes to both form and function. The base shows options to like, comment and tag photos. For single-handed use, you can now simply swipe down to return to the previous screen.

Messages got a whole new look and its safe to say that it now functions just like Facebook Messenger. The interface and other features are a ditto version of the Messenger app including the ability to share photos and your location.

There's no doubt that the speedier app will be highly appreciated by millions of Facebook users. In case you've been neglecting the app for its painfully slow load times and crippled speed, we suggest you befriend Facebook in its all new faster native iOS avatar.

Facebook (iOS, Free)