The Facebook app for Windows Phone 7 has just been updated and the world’s largest social network has added some much-needed features to its app for Microsoft smartphone platform.
The first big addition to the Facebook Windows Phone 7 app is the ability to broadcast your location with Places. This feature is similar to the Foursquare app because you can check-in to locations and even tag other people with you.
The Facebook Windows Phone 7 with Places also opens the door for users to get deals with the new deals platform that was launched. I don’t know how much value this provides yet though, as even in tech-savvy San Francisco I haven’t seen anything worthwhile yet. That may change in the future though and Microsoft users will be happy about that.
The Facebook Windows Phone 7 app also now includes the ability to tag photos on the go. That’s a very useful feature which probably should have been included from the very beginning.
The new features are cool but what’s interesting is to see how much weight the world’s largest social network is putting into this brand new smartphone platform. While there may be as many as 1.5 million people using Microsoft’s platform, that’s still a paltry amount compared to Apple, Google or Research In Motion. The speed with which the Facebook Windows Phone 7 app gained these new features may have to do with the fact that Microsoft is doing a lot to boost its app ecosystem, including outright paying developers.
Places was launched in August on the mobile web and through an iPhone application but it took until November for the Android version to receive this feature. Let’s hope the updates keep coming at a quick pace because I know I would love to have the chat feature enabled on my HTC Surround.
[Via WM Power User]