Facebook unveils speedier app for iPhone, iPad

This photo provided by Facebook shows a screenshot from its newest mobile application which launched on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. Facebook says rather than adding a slew of new features, the company rebuilt the application from scratch to make it speedier and less clunky. AP PHOTO/FACEBOOK

SAN FRANCISCO—Facebook unveiled a new mobile app Thursday for its users on Apple iPhone and iPad, saying it would speed up the performance of people accessing the world’s biggest social network.

The new app is “a major update to the Facebook for iOS rebuilt from the ground up, to focus on one thing, performance,” said Facebook product manager Mick Johnson.

Johnson told AFP that those using the app on Apple devices would be able to perform many functions “twice as fast” including opening the application, scrolling through their newsfeed and opening a photo.

“We kept the visual layout pretty much the same,” he said. “The focus of this was performance.”

Facebook made other improvements to help make its app more user-friendly, Johnson said.

“We saw many people using Facebook for iPhone one-handed,” he said, so the developers made it easier to do certain things such as opening or closing a photo by swiping the screen with one’s thumb.

The new version of the app for iPad will also allow users to create a “timeline” which can be done on Facebook in other versions.

The Facebook 5.0 app will be compatible with versions 4.3 and newer of the Apple mobile operating system.

Facebook has some 500 million mobile users, but the company does not break down statistics for those using specific operating systems.