It’s not out until tomorrow, but Windows Phone 7 apps have been trickling out into the Marketplace to be ready for the first customers. Today’s big addition is the official Facebook app, which brings all the functionality we were missing from the neat integration already on the handsets.
All Windows Phone 7 handsets use Facebook to populate your contacts list, as well as showing your news feed and allowing you to write on people’s walls. What they don’t offer, though, is anything else. There are no notifications, no IM, no private messaging – while reviewing the HTC HD7 we felt this was quite an oversight.
But now there’s a full app – and it’s looking good. Designed in the same vein as the whole platform, there’s the now-familiar panoramic layout and friends’ photo galleries are laid out in thumbnail form.
It’s not as responsive as other platforms – a friend request we received came through on the iPhone 4 immediately, but after waiting ten minutes for a notification on the HTC 7 Mozart, we just went into the app and forced it to refresh. The other thing we don’t like is that we still can’t sync it with the calendar app for event and birthday reminders.
But it’s a lovely looking app, and nice to know those features we missed before the app came out have been catered for.
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