Owners of an iPhone or iPad who regularly poll the App Store for available updates will likely already be aware that Facebook has rolled out yet another update to its iOS app. The world’s largest social network is of course continuing the trend that it has been championing in relation to App Store update notes by simply providing the usual arbitrary string of text, leaving users to find the latest changes and improvements for themselves. Facebook users will be happy to learn that the social network giant has brought some additional 3D Touch capabilities to the app.
Regular users of the Facebook iPhone app will understand that it already has some 3D Touch integration in the form of a number of Quick Action shortcuts from the app’s Home screen icon. However, Facebook is now rolling out additional changes to that particular feature, as well as adding “Peek and Pop” support for in-app content.
The first 3D Touch change in the latest update comes in the form of a new Quick Action shortcut when interacting with the app icon from the Home screen. It now lets users quickly view their own timeline without having to enter the app and navigating to their own profile. Facebook’s Quick Action shortcuts have previously allowed users to upload a photo or video, quickly capture some kind of media, or even jump directly to updating their status.
Additionally, Facebook has also began the process of bringing “Peek and Pop” 3D Touch support into the app itself. Users within the app can now invoke Peek and Pop to interact with web links, profiles, pages, groups, individual event pages, photos, profile pictures, and even cover photos that adorn the top of a user’s profiles.
It all sounds great and is a definite improvement to the Facebook experience on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but, as you might expect, it comes with a rather important downside. Not all users updating to the latest version of the app will get these changes immediately. Facebook itself has stipulated that “only a small number of people” will initially see the changes. The rest of us will start seeing the improvements show up over the coming months – yes that’s right, months!
To make up for this, it is also being reported that support for Live Photos – originally announced a month ago – is now being rolled out to more users as part of this update.
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