Facebook Has a “Blazing Fast” iOS App on the Launchpad, Sources Say

Facebook employees in charge with the company’s iOS division are said to be coding hard to spit out an Objective-C version of the Facebook application for iPhones and iPads. The switch from HTML5 is said to have a single purpose: speed.

Two Facebook engineers who asked to remain anonymous (for obvious reasons) reportedly told the New York Times’ Bits blog that “Facebook has completely rebuilt its iOS application to optimize for one thing: speed.”

The author notes that the current Facebook app relies heavily on HTML5, which forces it to draw much of its resources from the web.

“[An] Objective-C shell with a Web browser inside” will allow the next app to take full advantage of the hardware in Apple’s iOS devices, “building most of the functionality directly into the application so it has to collect less information from the Web,” according to the report.