Today’s Facebook Mobile event turned out to be more interesting than I thought. This is probably because there was a focus on location and somewhat on Android. While Zuckerberg is still denying rumors of a Facebook phone, we are seeing Facebook take major steps to become dominant in the mobile world.
Single Sign On
Arguably the least exciting, but possibly the most useful announcement today goes to Facebook Single Sign On. I can’t tell you how many apps I’ve never tried on my mobile because I didn’t feel like logging in. Even with the simplest passwords, it’s often hard to login on your mobile phone. Single Sign On changes that:
Here’s how single sign on works: Just log in to the Facebook application on your mobile phone once. From then on, you can log in to any other application on your phone that supports single sign on without typing a username or password again. This works on any Android phone or any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch device that supports multitasking (most iOS4 devices).
Single Sign On is currently only available on the following Android apps: Flixster, Groupon, Loopt, SCVNGR, Yelp and Zynga Poker. iPhone apps should be coming soon. A simple feature that could give developers a huge boost in attracting users.
Places and Groups
The latest versions of the Facebook Android and iPhone apps now include support for both Places and Groups. Facebook Places will make it easier for iPhone and Android users to connect in the real world. In addition to these new features on Android, they’ve also updated the notifications system so that it doesn’t dump you in the browser every time you touch something.
Deals
Deals is a feature of Places that lets you see nearby deals at local businesses. Integration with businesses is one of the primary goals of location-based services, so this is a pretty big deal. Deals are now only available in the US. You can access deals on your iPhone with the latest Facebook app and Android users can use the touch.facebook.com site.
via Facebook