The Facebook app for iOS is frustrating. Users have complained that it’s sluggish, has a propensity to crash at the most tender moments, and is constantly struggling to load. The New York Times has even found that that out of 38,000 iTunes App Store reviews, about 21,000 of users gave the app just one star.
Fortunately, two anonymous Facebook engineers have spilled the beans to Times writer Nick Bilton about the company’s plans to release a speedier version of the app next month. Users might find it upsetting that the update will not come with a UI change, but it will have updated code that should speed up the app’s turtle-ish nature.
Late last year, Facebook commented on the iPhone app’s speed during the F8 Developers Conference. Dave Fetterman, engineering manager at Facebook, said that the coding used in the original app was comprised majorly of HTML5 so that developers would be able to reuse code across multiple mobile platforms. Fortunately for developers, this worked like a gem. However, users know all too well that this compromise failed to gain any satisfaction in the Facebook community.
The anonymous engineers have hinted that the update will change the application code to Objective-C, which is native iOS code. Facebook users may soon have the mobile experience they always dreamed about, though Facebook has not yet officially commented on the possibility.
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