We have received a ton of great feedback on the Facebook app which is fantastic. It pushes us to do more, quickly! The top request is for access to Facebook notifications. Henry Levak even reached out with a mock of what he would like to see. So, notifications became the focus of our latest beta, Facebook 1.1.4.
We have actually implemented multiple levels of notifications for you, which we will detail below.
Changing the top left; Facebook notifications drop down
Until now, the top left area of the navigation bar has been for updating status. webOS devices are great at creating content (hardware keyboards and all) but it didn’t feel quite right to have that area available when we aren’t telling you anything new. Why not use that area to let you know when something has changed? E.g. notifications. A badge will show you how many new notifications are waiting for you, and when you tap on the icon, a drop down will give you access to your latest notifications…. and also give you access to the rest. We tried to mimic the website here, which also contains messages and friend requests. In the future, maybe we unify all of these for you.
But wait, what if you want quick access to the status update area? It turns out that it doesn’t take any more effort. From any scene you can tap on the Facebook logo to go to the news feed and then just start typing. We will detect that and auto focus on the “what’s on your mind” area. This also allows us to clean up the fake status area that we had before…. much nicer!
Scene is all
From the drop down, if you tap on “See all notifications” you will be sent to a full scene that allows you to scroll through your various notifications. Access the source of the notifications easier, or jump to a user profile. In the future we are playing with giving you more information here. For example, rather than “Bob Harris likes your status”, how about showing a piece of that status so you know what they are talking about without having to tap in?
Notifications Squared
There are Facebook notifications and webOS notifications. We wanted to marry them together in this release. If a new Facebook notification occurs, a banner and dashboard will alert you to the info and you can get directly to that info.
We currently show the most recent notification, and you can get to the notifications scene if you tap on the icon and badge on the left. In the future we want to provide an easy way to flip through notifications right in the dashboard so you don’t even have to go into the main app to see what is happening. Once we get to friend requests, we can allow you to accept or deny right there! The power of webOS 
And, there’s more
There are other little features and fixes in this beta, including:
- Keyboard shortcuts now use our native “gesture area + key” support which includes a drop down “Navigate to….” area.
- Formatting of content has been fixed (blank lines separating content)
- No HTML tags in Inbox (no more <br>)
- If you launch the Facebook app when already running, refresh the feed a la Tweed
We really hope that you enjoy access to notifications, and as always, keep the feedback flowing!
UPDATE: We got some great feedback from you, and have a new beta release out today… 1.1.4 is the latest (1.1.3 had some bad info in it). Fixes for the “Facebook User” issue, and for the data wiped on tap issue are in. Keep the feedback coming!
- Ben and Dion on behalf of the Developer Relations Facebook team
on the appcatalog beta feed is still version 1.1.1
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Thank you! Notifications are awesome.
Hello there,
Great update!
Question, how do I access dashboard notifications? I can’t seem to find them anywhere.
Thanks,
Austin
How about facebook chat?
how do you activate notifications???? does the app have to be open????
Wow, beautiful work yet again. I esp. love the pop-up notifications, and can’t wait to see a coming dashboard function that lets us vote yea or nay on friend requests. Power of webOS indeed.
Go Palm go!
I need a flash player upgrade on this phone.
GREAT can’t wait to use the new version.
The mail no longer works – very difficult to select a name and if you get that done it will not send the message.
I just wish it resembles the iphone. The chat is not available and also it doesn’t show the users name on the comment other than that it would be top phone
Are notifications pushed in real time? What will I be notified for? (likes, comments, friend requests?)
Hey guys, great job on getting notifications going, something I’ve been waiting for. But it still seems really buggy (I know its a BETA, but just want to give feedback) Notifications, and sometimes even the status update page when I start app, won’r load at all…it just hangs. Then, what seems like randomly, I get dashboard notifications…but way after I’ve already received an email from FB saying I have a notification. If I tap the dashboard notification, it seems that I can THEN access the new notifications button in the upper left corner.
Thanks for all the hard work (and any advice you might have for me) o nthe app…you’re all doing great!!
Ignore the last comment. They randomly started working now.. but only random notifications. Still a great update though!
First, I’m loving the new app. This was the last thing I was waiting for with this Facebook app, and I just deleted all the rest of my 3rd party clients. Amazing work folks.
I do have a bug (I think) to report however, either that or I’m not understanding something. How do I get the little red bubble that shows the number of notifications to clear? I’ve clicked through to notifications, tried to swipe them away, clicked through to show all notifications… nothing. That red bubble stays stubbornly there, even after I’ve looked at the notifications. How do I fix this?
Thanks!
Kelly Scott
Sprint Pre since Launch!
Any chance swipe to delete messages (with confirmation) can be added to the next version? can’t wait to see what else there is in store
Great app – I guess, because since I have to travel in a country without your support I can not download it – thanks to geo filtering.
Maybe you want to start thinking about making accounts with credit cards and open free apps to all countries.
finally! it’s fantastic…push notifications work perfectly, the notification page not
why?
here the screen: http://i44.tinypic.com/nloiue.png
This is all great but my phone says there are no updates available
Thanks for the great update! I believe I’ve found a bug, though. When I go to Events in the app, it listed one of my events for 10:30PM, but the actual website on my computer (and on the pre browser) says 8:30PM. The event’s time was updated recently, so I’m not sure if the app is grabbing an old feed for the event, or if the app is not timezone aware and is showing the time to me in PST instead of CST (where I live). I’m thinking it’s a timezone issue. Thanks for looking into it in advance!
in both 1.1.1 & 1.1.2, when I view msgs sent, for those msgs that are a reply, the name shown is mine rather than the persons to whom I am replying.
Hey i love the app, love the response from palm also in incorporating user suggestions. I would like to see however, an option to turn on/off the push notification feature. one does not always want the banner popping up. also need to be able to see who liked posts the same way you can see who all commented on the post. need to be able to upload video. need chat function. also the option to delete posts, emails and album/pictures from the app would be great. also it would be nice to reply , accept or deny events from the app.
See I foresee an app that totally replaces the pc. If you can make it that a user can do all that they need to do on facebook directly from the app then you will be increasing the use and the reliance on the mobile device. I think that would be a definate win for Palm. keep up the good work.
I cannot login to this app, or the release version, error:
An Error occurred requesting service palm://com.palm.facebook. Error message: Service Method Exception: java.lang.NullPointerException.
I’ve noticed that whenever i try to open the app via the notification area, it hangs up. Also if i try to open the app via the launcher with a FB notification in the dashboard, it will hang up. The only way to get the feeds to successfully update its to swipe away the notification the open facebook via the launcher.
facebook chat would be an excellent addition!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m not see any notifications. I’m asking for people to send messages so I can see how the notifications work but I’m not seeing the notifications.
Thanks!
Nice beta. Since 1.1.4, notifications seem broken and are just an endless spinning refresh icon.
Update. The endless spinning icon is gone. Notifications show up again. Yay!
swipe to delete would be nice for notifications. Also there needs to be some kind of confirmation after a status update or after posting a pic. I never know if my status updated properly or if my image uploaded to facebook. Keep the updates coming. This version .14 is working great so far
Stupid question probably, but this version is not mend for my Treo Pro right? What would be the best facebook version to download on a Treo Pro?
kind regards
Hey, running 1.1.4 here, and for some reason, it just bloody well won’t update or refresh!
Also, as mentioned by someone previous, is it possible to choose whether you want notifications appearing in the bottom notification area? I’m more the type, who, if I want to know if there are Facebook notifications, would rather go into the app and see them there. Other than that, guys, great work! 
Oh! One more thing… Please don’t have the page automatically refresh while I’m trying to read it!
Thanks again!
For some reason the news feed refuses to load. It will initially make the data call and then sputter out and not refresh the news feed. Sometimes restarting the application helps this other times not. Does anyone else have this issue?
How do I install the update, it won’t send me the link on my palm pre plus
can anyone send a flash player for palm pixi, so I can play farmville & other games on facebook through my phone. Thank you
can someone send a link to the update, or where can I find the update at.
This article is about an old update… The current version is 1.2.1 and you can get that on your phone by searching for “Facebook” in the App Catalog.
A way to delete old notifications on posts and comments is nessasary. I hate staring at that red bubble and scrolling down to find the highlighted messages. Also an option where we don’t have to get a notificaiton on Facebook and also in our email accounts. I feel like I get bombarded all at once with duplicate notifications.