Facebook Intros Mobile Platform, Updates Android and iOS Apps

Today, the popular social media destination Facebook announced officially the launch of its mobile platform, aimed at the delivery of a social environment specifically designed for mobile phones, though expected to mirror its dominant Web-based platform.

It appears that Facebook is already very popular among mobile phone owners too, with a number of over 200 million active users on its mobile products, marking an impressive increase from the 65 million reported last year.

According to the company, the mobile platform would initially include a series of projects through which developers should be able to expand more easily their Facebook products to the mobile space.

The company also notes that these projects would support various mobile operating systems, including Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and RIM’s BlackBerry platforms.

Among the features that were announced officially today, we can count Single Sign-On, aimed at enabling easy login from mobile apps on mobile devices.

Single Sign-On is the most important of them, as it offers a wide range of functions to Facebook users.

The feature should reduce phishing success, or password fatigue, should offer support for conventional authentication, provide reduced IT costs, increase security at all levels, and reduce time spent re-entering passwords for the same identity.

Other announcements included Location APIs, so that mobile apps can access Facebook location services, and Deals Platform, aimed at local businesses interested in offering deals to nearby Facebook users.

In addition to these, Facebook also announced updated Android and iOS applications, each of them with specific enhancements and new features.

With Facebook for Android, users would be able to easily stay connected and share info with friends, check News Feed, upload photos, share links, view posted videos, and do more.

Changes in the new release (version 1.4.0, for all Android flavors) include:

- Groups: share posts with small groups of friends
- Places: share where you are with friends, see where friends are, discover places nearby
- Improved Notifications - view comments and updates within the app
- Various bug fixes

As for the iOS application, now at version 3.3.1, it offers users the possibility to easily start conversations on Facebook Chat, view status updates, and more.

The new release, tested on iOS 4.0, comes with the following changes:

- Groups: share photos and posts with small groups of friends
- Deals: discover great deals around you
- Places: tag more friends after you check in, add photos
- Various bug fixes

The Android version of Facebook is available for download from the Android Market (or through scanning the barcode to the left with the phone's camera), while Facebook for iPhone can be found in the App Store (iTunes link).