While iPhone owners have long had a powerful Facebook app with a wide range of functionality, Google Android users have had to make do with the mobile version of the social networking site (called Facebook Lite). Not only does it offer limited features, but also it is clunky and rather difficult to navigate.
But that changed Tuesday when a new and long-awaited Facebook app hit the Android market. The free app offers many of the features that you've come to expect on the iPhone app and the full version of the site. You can scan your news feed, view your friends' walls and user info, comment on status updates and hit the "like" button, take and upload photos, add new friends and post status updates of your own. What's more, you can add a notification widget to your home screen and you even can shake to refresh your news feed.
Though we welcome the extra features the interface and navigation appear a bit convoluted as of now. For example, it takes a lot of clicks to get to a friend's profile and list of friends. Also, you can't get Facebook chat or access to messaging for now. We assume those features will be added soon.
It's worth noting that while Facebook is listed as the developer in the Android Market, Facebook's official Web page for the app says that it was not developed by the company. From what we hear, Google developed the app with Facebook's help.
