Facebook has just announced an update to their iOS app, the first major update since they launched version 5.0 back in August.
Version 5.1 of Facebook for iOS brings multiple photo sharing and a bunch of chat-oriented updates.
Now, users can access their chat list in two new ways. First, there’s now a button on the top right of the app. Second, users can swipe to the left to pull over their chat list. So, swipe right for navigation menu, and swipe left for chat list. With this update, Facebook for iOS now mimics Facebook on desktop.
Once you’ve accessed the chat list, you can now edit the order of your friends to put your most-talked-to buddies at the top. Each friend also sports an online indicator that lets you know if they are currently available or tells you how long they’ve been active but idle (on mobile).
Finally, Facebook brings Facebook Gifts to iOS. It’s been available on Android for some time. The caveat here is that this is only for U.S. users and you must already be a part of the small Facebook Gifts test in order to have the functionality on mobile. Facebook is currently working on rolling Gifts out to more users.
Back in August, Facebook released a completely rebuilt app with version 5.0. The app abandoned HTML-5 and instead opted for Objective-C, looking to combat the criticism that the old app was clunky, slow, and unusable at times. Within a few weeks, the app’s star rating had jumped from 1.5 stars to 4 stars thanks to the redesign.
You can download the update on iTunes right now.
New Facebook for iOS – now you can share multiple photos, swipe left to chat, and add friends to Favorites. https://t.co/Tk6ncyns
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