TechCrunch reports that it has receiving detailed information on a forthcoming iPhone application from Facebook that will focus on photo sharing, building on top of the company's massive existing platform to apparently pull together aspects of many other popular photo apps in what appears from the leaked documents to be an "awesome" offering.
But again, the app looks amazing. We've heard that internally it is being called either "Hovertown" or "WithPeople". And while it looks like a stand-alone app right now, there are also signs that it could be eventually integrated into Facebook's main iPhone app - as well as the main site.
Either way, based on the images in front of us, the best way to think about it appears to be Path meets Instagram meets Color meets (Path's new side project) With - with a few cool twists. And obviously, it's built entirely on top of Facebook's massive social graph.
No real details on the app other than a single image have yet been provided by TechCrunch, although the site is currently working through the significant amount of leaked material to decipher more about its features and functionality.
Update: TechCrunch has now filed a follow-up report sharing more images of the forthcoming application.
A few notes: the images we have suggest that while polished, this still may be a work in progress. It's clear that some of these mock-ups are older than other ones, given a few documents we have as well. Also, some images make it seem as if the service will eventually reside within the existing Facebook iPhone app, while others seem to showcase an entirely new app (or a completely redesigned Facebook app). It's entirely possible that both will be correct. It would make a lot of sense for Facebook, which is by far the largest photo service on the Internet with close to 100 billion photos, to make their own dedicated photo app. The space is exploding with popularity right now as Instagram and others are gaining millions of users quickly. Regardless, Facebook's focus on mobile photos going forward is very clear.
Top Rated Comments
+1
Agreed. I like the Facebook iPhone app in principle but it is full of bugs. Using it is like working with a small hyperactive child.
App: You have a new message!
Me: Cool. Show me the new message.
App: What new message?
Arrgh.
I've seen a variety of little piddly things that add up over time.
The most common is that the notification screen will tell me that I have a new comment, like, or meesage. I'll tap on it to take me to the photo or post where the new comment is supposed to be. It'll show me, but I won't see the new comment. If I go back to the notifications list, refresh it, then go back to the post or photo, then I'll see the new comment. This is consistent.
Sometimes I'll tap the notification to view someone's comment and it stalls out while trying to load. Accessing the comment by way of the News Feed works fine, but it always stalls from the Notification screen.
Another one is I'll see a little popup at the bottom of the screen that says "Joe just commented on your photo". OK, so I tap on it to bring up the notification screen. I expect to see this new notification at the top of the list, but no, it's still showing me what my LAST new notification was. Then it goes out to the network, refreshes, and THEN (usually) comes up with the new notification that Joe just commented on my photo. But wait, didn't you know that already? Because you popped it up earlier. Why did you have to go out and reload/refresh while I was watching the screen? Why couldn't you have updated the screen before I looked at it so I would have seen the latest data as soon as I pulled up the Notifications list?
Perhaps the notifications come from one server and the data comes from another, and one of them just gets updated slower than the other? I don't know. That's why it always feels like the app is telling me "you've got new data!" and then when I ask for it, it says "I dunno, what new data?"
Sometimes it randomly drops people's names and starts calling them "Facebook User" with a default photo. Scares me into thinking maybe I got blocked or they deleted their account.
Multiple random crashes too, just for fun.
Exactly!!