Facebook Messenger Soars to Top Free iPhone App

So far it seems Facebook’s Messenger app is a hit. After launching just Tuesday afternoon, it’s already the number-one free app in the iTunes App Store.

The iOS app has more than 600 customer reviews and with 900 ratings has 3.5 of five stars.

The app has the potential to chip away at the hold of cell carriers. It allows users to send messages and texts through the 750-million-member social network, and it updates in real time, so there’s no need to refresh to see if you’ve received new messages.

“This is replacing text messages in my dock!” one iOS reviewer wrote.

The negative reviews in both the App Store and the Android Market are mostly critical of Facebook now having two apps (though the company told Mashable it does plan to integrate the new message functionality into the main app) and of the fact that Messenger isn’t an instant message app.

Have you tried either the Android or iOS app yet? Could you see it replacing text messages?

You can check out images of the iOS and Android app below.

Source: www.mashable.com by Emily Banks

Facebook Fires Back at Google+ With New Gaming Features

Facebook has unveiled a slew of new features for Facebook games just hours after Google launched its gaming platform.

The first feature, the Game Ticker, transforms the right-hand Facebook Chat column into a newsfeed of friends’ game activity. The column displays what games your friends are playing as well as their achievements and high scores. It’s designed to be social, so clicking on a Game Ticker story takes you to that game so you can play with your friends. And just like Facebook News Feed, you can control which stories appear and don’t appear in the stream.

The world’s largest social network also introduced a new expanded-screen mode for games. Current players of social games will appreciate the added real estate for harvesting their crops or attacking their enemies. The final addition to Facebook’s gaming platform allows users to bookmark their favorite apps or games so they’re easily accessible from the News Feed.

The move is a counterattack to today’s launch of Google+ Games, which debuted Thursday with 16 games, including Angry Birds and Zynga Poker. It looks like the competition between the two Internet giants is getting even more intense.

Source: Mashable.com

Words With Friends [$1.99 / Free] is headed to Facebook

Words With Friends [$1.99 / Free] is headed to Facebook. Social giant Zynga Games announced the platform flip this afternoon with a delightful teaser image. Normally, I’d be a little annoyed by the lack of information, but really, what is there to say? Words with Friends is an extremely simple riff on the Scrabble formula with basic visual do-dads and mechanics that we’ve been enjoying for quite a while on iOS.
I’d imagine the reason we don’t have many details here is tied into the fact that nothing meaningful has been changed, aside from the addition of new Facebook-y social elements.