Facebook is always looking for ways to tailor the social experience to the everyday user, and has just begun trickling out a new card-based system that offers content and information based on your check-ins and status updates. The idea is to help you find things / people you might be interested in or close to, without you having to go looking yourself, and appears to be something of a response to Foursquare’s recently-announced Swarm app.
In trying to move away from a niche that always felt a little bit mechanical and forced, Foursquare took the wraps off Swarm earlier this month, with the basic idea being to help users engage with friends who maybe close-by, and in turn, help them find things to do.
Facebook’s new update to the official iOS app, which will roll out OTA rather than requiring you to go out and download the update, works similarly in that it will pick up on your check-in and general status update activity, and when you happen to check into a particular location, for example, the card-esque UI pops up detailing friends who’ve also recently checked in to the same spot.
Moreover, if you’re talking about a particular subject in your status update – be it regarding your dinner, Breaking Bad, cats or the World Cup – the card UI may appear once more detailing what some of your other friends think of this matter, and all told, it’s a pretty useful implementation.
The cards can be found through your news feed, and aren’t obtrusive in that they try their utmost to remain relevant to the places you go and the things you want to talk about. In a sense, it makes the experience of using Facebook a little more personalized, and allows you to find the info you (probably) wish to see at-a-glance.
On the flip-side, though, those who find it difficult to ignore Facebook for more than five minutes at a time may have their work cut out once this update has rolled out across the board.
Right now, it’s only being pushed to those on iOS, and for your convenience, we’ve provided a download link below for those who wish to download it. There’s no word on when Android / Windows Phone users will be getting this new feature, but as soon as this info comes to light, we’ll be sure to let you guys know.
Apart from the above mentioned update, Facebook for iOS has also been bumped to version 10 and is rolling out to everyone as we speak. But opposed to the card update mentioned above, this update will require user intervention and requires you to navigate to the App Store app then tapping on Updates then Update all.
The complete change log of the new Facebook for iOS app is as follows:
• Review what your post will look like and choose whether to remove any suggested links before sharing what you’re reading, watching or listening to
• Create posts even when your connection is weak or you’re in airplane mode, and they’ll be shared once your connection gets strong enough
• Improvements to make News Feed load faster, especially on older phones and tablets
(Download: Facebook for iOS on the App Store)
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