14 DAY TRIAL // Most Facebook users, or at least a vocal minority, hate change. They complain about every small tweak and they make a huge fuss over big changes to things like the timeline or the News Feed.
In fact, it's surprising that there hasn't been a huge backlash against the new News Feed, which hasn't been rolled out to that many users so far, or the tweaked Timeline.
Still, there are some Facebook users who like change. With one billion monthly active users, that number is bound to be quite large.
And now, Facebook is catering to those users, in a rather surprising way. A few days ago, some users started noticing that Facebook was pestering them about an update to the Android app.
This update bypassed the Play store and was downloaded directly to the users' phone. It was a peculiar move, but there is now an explanation.
Facebook will be using this method to test new features. This version of the app will only be pushed to users who have enabled the "install from unknown sources" option in the Android settings.
These users tend to be more knowledgeable than regular users, which is why Facebook is targeting them.
By enabling silent auto updates, it can push new features and tests fast and easy, without affecting a lot of users.
Facebook was able to do this easily when its app was based on HTML5, in fact, this was the big reason why Facebook chose to use HTML5. Now, Facebook has found a way to test experimental features with a few users while using the native Android app platform.
Users who update to this beta version of the app will be the first to get new features and will get experimental features as well. If the tests go well, the features are then pushed to more users and eventually all.