Facebook Android App Runs Lighter, Faster For Emerging Markets

Facebook recently rolled out an app update for Google Android devices, explaining insight on how a trip to Africa helped make global changes.  The company wants to ensure users in emerging markets have the same Facebook experience, with a focus on design.

Following a recent trip to Africa, where developers tested the latest Facebook app on several different Android devices, there were a number of overlooked issues.  A combination of low-bandwidth and unreliable Internet service and memory space proved to be a major problem.  Monthly data plans were ripped through in just 40 minutes.

The Facebook developers returned home and created a roadmap to improve its mobile service.  The new Facebook app is 65 percent leaner and cuts data consumption in half, a critical oversight for many users that have unlimited data.

Here is what Alex Sourov, Facebook engineer, said in a recent blog post:

“Our trip to Africa really highlighted the importance of our work on mobile performance, data efficiency, networking reliability, and application size for emerging markets.  We’ve made a concerted effort to improve in all these areas and achieved a significant amount of success in the past year.”

When Facebook began to understand the importance of mobile service, the company quickly streamlined development.  As many users access the Web only through phones and mobile devices, this will be beneficial.

Thank you the Facebook Blog for providing us with this information

Image courtesy of Facebook