PS®Vita - Facebook Application Review

[MarkGibbons]

Let's start this written review off by pointing out that that this application was pulled from the Playstation Store on February 26, 2012. Now, Let's get started!

Upon opening up the start screen you're greeted with an announcement from facebook stating that if you're experiencing problems, you'll have to wait until the issues are resolved, and considering you're being warned about issues before you've even opened the application, You can safely assume theres problems that are going to be ahead you.

From the very second you start, you'll notice things aren't loading as fast they should, and for the first time you wont know any better either, well, that's until you hit the 4-5 minute mark for one segment of your news-feed to load,

and once that loads, what can you do? Well, I'd say you can comment on posts, which is do-able, but almost impossible to do; After writing whichever you plan on posting, you've got to be especially careful not to hit that Green button, generally used for creating a new line in the post, because It'll post whatever you've written straight away, defeating the buttons purpose, oh, did I mention theres no way to delete, or edit your own posts?

We could also try something simple, such as ‘Liking’ a post, or can we not? You'd think at least they would get that simple task correct, but not at all, this feature doesn't even work!

Enjoy being greeted by an error code telling you have no internet connection, (even though you obviously do)

How about checking your notifications you may ask? This is something quite important for facebook?

well, I can gracefully say that this works, some-what, again, you'll be waiting minutes for this to load, (If it loads)

because theres still a 50/50 chance it'll cause an error and completely close the application itself;

Let's try inboxes instead? After looking for the icon along the top of the screen, I couldn't find it, I found it

soon enough though, along the side of the screen, let's give it a try you say? Alright!

My first impression was quite good, It loaded the messages within 8 long-counted seconds; but didn't

load the senders/receivers profile images for at least a good minute.

(Consider that I'm using a high-speed fibre optics broadband connection at 15MB's per second) with near-perfect service!)

Now for the next part of my review; loading your friends/contact list?

Well, our first attempt at loading this didn't work at all, once again the application crashed and we

had to re-open it, and start again, enduring those extensively long loading times, again; we did get there though

(as you can see in the above photo)

Again, it loaded poorly, and without loading the profile images for the contacts, so after waiting

many minutes, we could start viewing the images, one, by one, as they load at a painful rate;

We tried to look for any of the features the mobile versions have, such as seeing there contact details,

Anything, address, phone numbers, e-mail, birth date, but those features don't appear, once you click (or tap)

somebodies name, you'll be directed to there Facebook Wall, which again, will occur more loading times.

Now, I'd love to give you some details about the photo aspect of this application and I can

provide you with some, and the main detail being, IT DOESN'T WORK!

The feature is there, but you'll be waiting 5-15 minutes depending on your internet connection

to load any photos, and you'll watch them load one by one, painfully as if you're on a dial-up connection in the 90's

and even if you make it that far, be grateful, It took many attempts for me to even get this feature working;

it just ended up crashing, after crashing, after crashing, so I never even got to load all the images, (Great work!)

As for uploading images? - Easy, they DIDN'T add this feature at all; there is no way

to upload snaps or screenshots from your Vita to facebook, absolutely none!

By this point in the review, the entire application had become so faulty, It wouldn't even open;

the entire application was completely shut-down due to an error that stopped you from even logging in.

In an attempt to resolve my issue, I deleted the application and was ready to re-install, however

while I was looking through the Playstation®Store for app, I was unable to find it, yes,

By this point 'Sony' had removed the application themselves; (Thank god, no one else should have to endure this)

- Luckily, I could re-download the application to finish off the review from my download history.

So, what can we rate this app? Well, I can't - I'm not sure this application even deserves a rating;

and can you rate something that doesn't even work?

[Spark-N]

0/10 great, since Facebook is not one of the reasons to buy a Vita in my eyes

[MarkGibbons]

0/10 great, since Facebook is not one of the reasons to buy a Vita in my eyes

I'd say it is "one of the reasons" - It's a feature, and all features should work. Plus my Vita has replaced my phone, so I'd expect facebook to work. (3G Vita ftw)

[Parker]

Honestly, I think it would be better to review the app after the re-release it on the PSN Store. Obviously it wasn't up to snuff so they pulled it, and now that no-one can get it the review doesn't really help. The ones that have the app more than likely already figured out it was awful and the ones that don't have the app can't get it.

Honestly though, I really couldn't care less if they re-release the app. Facebook is pointless to me and I'm certain that it's an app I'd never use, but definitely understand there is a market for it but like I said, review the app when they've made the necessary changes.

Parker

[MarkGibbons]

Honestly, I think it would be better to review the app after the re-release it on the PSN Store. Obviously it wasn't up to snuff so they pulled it, and now that no-one can get it the review doesn't really help. The ones that have the app more than likely already figured out it was awful and the ones that don't have the app can't get it.

Honestly though, I really couldn't care less if they re-release the app. Facebook is pointless to me and I'm certain that it's an app I'd never use, but definitely understand there is a market for it but like I said, review the app when they've made the necessary changes.

Parker

In saying that, they put it on the store again, and it has all the same problems.

[simpgraus]

the issue is a load issue, it all depends when you try and login.

i log in a night and its fine for me, but during the day it's just a error message.

[Paranoimia]

I didn't use it enough to experience the problems of the old version, but I downloaded the new version and it works just fine for me. No problems, no errors, and it seems reasonably fast, too.