New Facebook Inc App Update for Blackberry Ltd (BBRY)’s Devices not as Desired

BlackBerry Z3

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has updated its application for Blackberry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) devices that run the Blackberry operating system. The app has not been updated in a long time and has not functioned as it should for a long time.

The new update has been produced but it probably isn’t the best and people will probably not like it. The new app update is nothing more than a web browser link. That means the use of Blackberry Hub integration and sharing functionality is lost after you go to the link. That is not the end of the news on the update, because as of March 31st, 2016 the old app version of the will also stop working, therefore there is no other option but to update to the new app.

The statement which was posted on the Blackberry Knowledge Base article that went along with the update showed that an update of the new Facebook app had to be done by March 31st in order to continue using Facebook. The old application will stop working on all Blackberry smartphones that use the Blackberry 10 and Blackberry 7.1 and earlier versions, the statement continues on. If there is any need to continue using Facebook then there is nothing to do other than the update.

The following are various questions that you might have and we are going to do our best to explain the few topics we have knowledge on as much as we can.

Why has my Facebook app stopped working?

  • As of March 31st, 2016 an update to the Facebook application will be required for Blackberry smartphones running Blackberry 10 and Blackberry OS versions 7.1 and earlier. If you wish to continue using Facebook, you are encouraged to move to the web-based experience which will provide the most feature rich alternative.

What capabilities will be gained using the updated version of the application on both platforms?

  • Ability to reply to comments and see replies to comments.
  • All posts should be loaded, no more “Newsfeed could not be retrieved” or “Post could not be loaded” messages.
  • Any features available to Facebook website users will be available to you in the updated application.

What functionality will be lost with the updated version of the application?

  • Blackberry 10 Facebook contact synchronization: Upon upgrading to the latest version of the application, Facebook contacts will no longer synchronize with the on-device Contacts application.
  • Blackberry Hub integration: Messages/Chats, posts, friend requests, games, invites and other notifications will no longer show as entries in Blackberry Hub. Blackberry 10 smartphones will no longer have the ability to share items like pictures and videos directly to Facebook using the Share icon.
  • Looking for setup “near” real time notifications? – For near. Real-time notifications, you can set up SMS or E-mail notifications on the Facebook website.

Why do Android and iOS continue to have a native application, but not Blackberry?

  • The native Facebook application on other platforms use a private API not available for general use and has not been made available to Blackberry.

Why is the application prompting to logout of Facebook?

  • Due to the changes with the Facebook application, it is required to logout and login to the new version.

This move means that instead of an update, Blackberry has just decided to go further and kill the Facebook app as a whole. This might not be good news for Canada.

Since many people normally use Facebook, measures like this might just turn them away.