Whatever your personal feelings about the new iOS 7, the fact remains that many companies have been waiting for its release to debut new apps. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is no different than the hundreds of others and released their updated app today.
The changes are by no means massive, but there are a number of changes to the app’s interface that focus on navigation and design.
You will immediately notice that the icons for friend requests, messages and notifications found at the top of the app are no longer there—they’ve moved south for the winter. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has added a new menu bar that runs along the bottom of the screen that makes it easier to switch between five options: the news feed, your friend requests, messages, notifications and more. All of these options are available while you’re browsing your News Feed.
There is also a “More” button that sends you to the main menu, where you can access the rest of Facebook’s sections, such as events, pages, photos and other options.
Additionally, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has made some aesthetic updates to notifications. In the past, tapping the notifications button opened a list in a pop-up bubble; this is now gone. Presently, when you select notifications, now at the bottom menu, it loads full screen as a list that is very similar in appearance to the News Feed. The folks at Facebook have also added a see-through navigation bar at the top that allows for the viewing of content underneath as you scroll through your friends’ posts and photos.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) explains the changes as a whole move towards emphasizing content just as it did with its News Feed remake in March of this year. This remade News Feed is still in the process of being rolled out to Facebook’s billion plus monthly users.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) added the tabbed design in this latest incarnation, but it’s rumored that Twitter plans to rubbish the tabbed design in its new app when it’s released. Twitter’s newest iOS 7 update still features the bottom row of buttons but will go to the wayside within the month.
The new app is also available to users of iOS 5 and iOS 6 though there will be a number of small differences.
