MG Siegler: Facebook Integration Coming To iOS 6

According to MG Siegler at TechCrunch, Apple’s upcoming new version of iOS — set to be unveiled at WWDC — will feature Facebook integration, similarly to how Twitter was integrated into iOS 5 last year.

It’s important to note that Apple being Apple, something could change in the next week and a half (see again: Facebook/Ping). But as of right now, Facebook is a go in iOS “Sundance”. One thing still being hammered out according to our sources is how sharing will work. Sharing is the other big part of the iOS/Twitter integration, and will be important for iOS/Facebook integration as well. But Facebook is significantly more complicated than Twitter in that there are all kinds of permissions for what you can post where and who can see what. And Open Graph adds another layer of complexity to all of this.

It is unclear for now how Facebook integration could work at a system level on iOS, presumably allowing users to share status updates, photos, and videos. Taking Twitter integration as a reference, it is worth noting how Apple doesn’t let users casually tweet at any time from iOS, having enabled the “tweet sheet” only in specific applications such as Safari and Photos. Facebook is more complex than Twitter in terms of privacy controls and functionalities, and we can only assume the system integration Apple has worked on will still strive for simplicity and intuitiveness when communicating with the service.

There are a series of factors as to why Apple could add Facebook integration to iOS. Firstly, such integration was spotted years ago into an unreleased build of iOS 4. Then, recent remarks by Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed the two companies have mutual respect for each other, and that they are working closer together to provide the “best experience” with Facebook to iOS users. Tim Cook himself said to “stay tuned” about it. Last, Facebook’s own apps for iOS (including the recently released Facebook Camera) and the plethora of third-party Facebook-connected apps could incredibly benefit from direct integration on iOS.

Apple’s WWDC kicks off on June 11 in San Francisco.

Facebook Releases Standalone Camera App

Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram raised eyebrows and foreshadowed the launch of a Facebook branded camera app, separate from the official Facebook application just as Facebook Messenger and Facebook Pages Manager are. Combined with the dream team of developers from Sofa, Facebook’s previous talent pull seems to have paid off with Facebook Camera, a central app dedicated to taking pictures, lightly editing photos, and uploading pictures to your Facebook profile. With cropping and straightening tools, the ability apply stylish filters, batch upload multiple photographs at a time, and view your friend’s photos in fluid streams a la the camera roll, we’re left astonishingly impressed with Facebook’s latest mobile application.

Facebook’s Camera app looks great. Looks like Sofa’s @dirkstoop had a big hand in it too. theverge.com/2012/5/24/3040…

— Steve Streza (@SteveStreza) May 24, 2012

Facebook’s app makes it easy to take photographs, batch upload your images (up to 2048 x 2048 pixels), tag them, and apply up to fifteen different filters not dissimilar from Instagram. A vertical feed of large photos, expansive album views, and an engaging progression of composing photos to uploading your favorite shots makes Facebook Camera feel like a solid camera application. Many unexpected elements can be pulled and pushed onscreen to reveal or hide information, and the app is simple enough to be intuitive without feeling crowded like you would expect a management app to be. Facebook has a well balanced, thoughtful, and overall enjoyable app on their hands. Facebook users should love it.

From Ellis Hamburger at The Verge:

Facebook Camera just became instantly the best way to upload photos to the social network, just ahead of Batch and other competitors. It’s simple to take photos, tag them, and upload them en masse, which is something we’ve been asking for for a long time.

Animations throughout Facebook Camera are fluid, the app is fast, and there’s a lot of clever interaction to take advantage of throughout the interface — clearly Facebook’s acquired talents have been hard at work in making the app to not just feel like a boring extension of Facebook, but rather a necessary addition that belongs, no, deserves to be on a Facebook user’s smartphone. Facebook has made an incredibly bold statement with Facebook Camera — they’ve stepped up to the plate to deliver a solid application that doesn’t feel tacked on or only done for the sake of their platform. It’s a serious release. Just look at their landing page.

All Things D and The New York Times both have introductory pieces on Facebook’s latest app release alongside Facebook’s official announcement on their blog. We recommend trying the app for yourself by downloading Facebook Camera from the App Store. A lot of care went into this app, and we’ll have more coverage after we spend some time using what’s already given us a great impression.

Drafts 1.2 Saves Quick Notes To Evernote, Facebook

Agile Tortoise released version 1.2 of its “quick note-taking” app Drafts today, adding support for Facebook and Evernote. As an Evernote user, the addition is more than welcome, as I now have the possibility of quickly saving a time-stamped note into my account in seconds. Previously, I used FastEver for this functionality. I don’t post to Facebook much, but the integration sounds handy as well:

Like Drafts’ existing twitter features, this update adds the option to post drafts to Facebook. The first time you post you will have to go through an authorization process, allowing Drafts access to your wall – from then on out it’s a simple tap. Those of you that use the Facebook app know, launching it and waiting for it to load to post an update is cumbersome – now you have a quick alternative.

Other improvements in Drafts 1.2 include a new “new draft after success” setting, support for calendar event creation, and integration with OmniFocus notes and Due. These add to the new icon, fixes, and Dropbox support that came in Drafts 1.1.

Drafts is available at $0.99 on the App Store.

Facebook Messenger Updated With Read Receipts, Location, Typing Indicator

The official Facebook Messenger app for iPhone was updated today, reaching version 1.7. The new version, first reported by 9to5mac earlier this week, adds a number of optimizations and new features to the standalone messaging client, including read receipts, location information for messages, and a typing indicator.

Similarly to Apple’s iMessage, the app now displays a read receipt under each message to indicate whether the person you have written to has “seen” or ignored a message. But unlike Apple’s solution, Facebook Messenger now attaches location data to single messages as well, associating each text — with the user’s consent regulated through the standard iOS location controls — with a city or area. This, combined with read receipts and a typing indicator (that, however, did not work in our tests) should contribute to making Facebook Messenger more “personal” and “contextual” than standard SMS. To further showcase the interconnected and multi-platform nature of Facebook — which now boasts over 480 million monthly mobile users — the company is now also showing the device that generated a message within the conversation: for instance, a message sent from an iPhone will have a mobile device icon next to it.

Facebook Messenger is capable of sending messages anywhere — web, desktop, mobile — as long as the recipient has a Facebook account, although according to the company today’s updates are “mobile first”.

Facebook Messenger 1.7 is out now on the App Store.

“Facebook Gets More Data”

Matthew Panzarino has a great take on today’s Instagram + Facebook news:

Facebook doesn’t need Instagram to make money. Instagram will probably never get ads.

I think it’s a win for everyone. Now Instagram doesn’t have to shoehorn a monetization model it would hate —and you would hate — into its service in order to survive. The users get a better experience. Facebook gets more data. Users that are quitting Instagram because the service may be ‘ruined’ are barking up the wrong tree. Facebook sees the value in the network as it is, a photo creation machine with a lot of user love.

While mobile ads could be a huge deal long-term speaking, it is true Facebook doesn’t “need” Instagram to make money right now. For a company as large as Facebook, this kind of acquisitions can be put on hold from a business perspective, to see how things evolve once users figure out they are effectively using a Facebook product. But you can’t put off the mobile explosion — it’s only going to get bigger — and can Facebook afford to miss out on “mobile advertisements done right”? What if someone else figures out a way to monetize millions — soon billions? — of users sharing photos from their smartphones?

It’s a good problem to have. And I agree that access to more data (patterns such as likes matched with photo captions, for instance, or location) is what matters for now. Let’s check back on ads and mobile monetization in six months.

More Instagram + Facebook coverage here.

Facebook, Instagram, and Ads

Oli Watts thinks Facebook’s recent statement on revenue from mobile users offers a clear indication of things to come soon in newly Facebook-owned Instagram: ads.

I think the real reason for the Instagram purchase, and the incredible price tag, is access to a potentially lucrative mobile advertising product.

Mobile advertisements are potentially more lucrative than standard “desktop” web advertisements, yet most companies have been doing them wrong for years. The majority of mobile advertisements have tried to replicate the web’s model with simple images users can click to be directed to a website. Others, including Apple with iAd, have tried to do things a little differently, yet the numbers are smaller, and incredibly so, than, say, Google’s revenue with ads on search and desktop websites. Mobile advertisements could keep users more “engaged” with promoted products by leveraging aspects like location, cameras, touch, apps – yet only a handful of companies seem to be betting on the future of ads as richer experiences built for mobile, not extrapolated from computers.

Facebook is a company that along the way found a business model and a culture that allows them to believe they are doing good things. That’s in their IPO filing. With the Instagram acquisition, one can only assume Facebook will want to start making some money with it eventually, and because Instagram is mobile, and photos are huge on mobile, Facebook will find a way to monetize both Instagram and Facebook’s mobile products.

Like Instagram’s photo sharing model applied to a company like Facebook, the potential for different mobile ads is largely untapped.

Why Facebook Bought Instagram

Om Malik, writing at GigaOM:

Facebook and Instagram are two distinct companies with two distinct personalities. Instagram has what Facebook craves – passionate community. People like Facebook. People use Facebook. People love Instagram. It is my single most-used app. I spend an hour a day on Instagram. I have made friends based on photos they share. I know how they feel, and how they see the world. Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion.

I am indeed interested to see how, on an emotional level, Instagram users will react to the Facebook acquisition. Will the “love” Om and others mention survive the migration to Facebook’s infrastructure? Or maybe Facebook will really keep Instagram as a truly separate product, perhaps only slightly more integrated with the social network — even if that doesn’t make much sense for a $1 billion acquisition? We’ll see.

In the meantime, it does appear the “social paradigm” Instagram reinvented (here’s my take from 2010) intrigued Facebook enough to give away 1% of its market cap.

Also worth keeping in mind: the photo sharing app Facebook was building, and the popular content on Instagram.