Application Review: Facebook Camera Facebook | FREE | 7.4 MB Facebook has become a staple for social media. In recent Weeks, Facebook went ahead and made a hefty purchase by buying Instagram. Their plans on what to do with it were unknown at the time. It was, however, believed that it would be integrated into Facebook better. That belief wasn’t too off. Facebook went ahead and released Facebook Camera (or just Camera), an extension to Facebook that focused entirely on photos and pictures. Features Camera is an app that has one simple mission, to view and edit photos. The features are well though up, but very basic at the same time. There is not much manual labor involved; taking from its Instagram roots, it functions more like a plug-and-play program more than anything. When first booting the app, you’ll be greeted with what looks similar to a Facebook stream. However, this one just contains photos and pictures, so start creepin’ away my friends. You can sort this out by your own stuff, which includes your uploads and tags, and your friends stuff, basically everything. However, it’s the bar above that is the magic of the app. A quick access button to the camera is visible from the start and allows you to snap the shot you want then and there. This button is visible in both the main screen as well as in your photo library. The camera button is quick to access and allows you to start taking photos immediately. In your photo library you have the option to edit multiple photos at once. Editing tools are sparse, but everything you really need. You are given cropping tools, as well as effects. That’s it. Unlike Instagram, not every photo is a square and you can crop as you please. Many filters are available, some better than others. The editing tools are not large in number, and I do wish that Facebook would allow slightly deeper editing of the photos before filters were added. Contrast, brightness, etc would be a nice touch. There are two main editing tools, filters and cropping; that’s it. Once you are done editing one photo, you can go edit another. Batch work is well supported, and a huge up side for Camera. This way, you don’t have to edit, post, edit, post, edit, post, edit… You get the point. Instead, you can edit a batch, and post an entire batch. It’s quicker, and better this way. Batch editing and posting is supported by the app to speed things up. Features: ★★★★½ Graphics The stock Facebook app can become a graphical mess at times. It’s sluggish, slow, and at times unreliable. Facebook Camera does a much better job than the stock. It’s smooth, and the animations are beautifully implemented and simple. Unlike the stock Facebook app, the animations run smooth as silk. Since there is very little to organize, the organization and menu setup feels right from the touch to the flick. Facebook did a splendid job on their Camera app, I just wish they could rehaul the stock app to reflect the potential they showed with this one. The interface of the stock app is just simple. Graphics: ★★★★★ Reuse Despite the lack of depth in the editing tools, the quick and dirty filters will definitely be something that many users will enjoy. The speed and interface of the app really just seal the deal here as well. The app offers users a handful of filters to choose from. The app is fast, and that is the most important part. Many editors on the App Store require time to edit photos. With Camera, it’s quick. Reuse: ★★★★★ Value This app will not cost you an arm or a leg. It might not even cost you cash to download. The app is light, so it won’t force you over data limits. If you do go overboard by 5 MB, then this app will cost you money. Otherwise, it’s free. The simple design, the speed of the app, the features all come together and make Facebook Camera well worth the quick download and install. So what are you waiting for? Value: ★★★★★ Final Thoughts We can definitely see why Facebook purchased Instagram now. I, honestly, am happy that Facebook made this purchase as this app is really beautifully built. I thought that Facebook would create a flop out of the Instagram purchase, how wrong I was. This quick editor does exactly what it needs to do with the core features you need, and most of all, Facebook kept the user in mind when making the app. Overall Score† All prices are in US currency. This review was written by the iFans.com Review Team. Cumulative scores are rounded to the nearest half or full star. All accessories, applications, themes, tweaks, or other products were purchased by iFans at their respective prices unless stated otherwise.
I'm not sure why they didn't just incorporate this into their main app, but I suppose having a camera only app like the messenger app makes sense. I downloaded it and to be honest, I love it!
Because you have to open up the Facebook app, go to your profile, add a photo, etc. It takes time. This is quicker.
I'd just be another thing to add to an already crammed mobile App. The Facebook app doesn't have the best of interfaces due to the clustering. This would only add cluster and add another thing to do before you can do pics. I do love this app though, it's great
It looks nice, but I probably wouldn't use it. I just really wish they'd focus on fixing the main app, before going off and making a whole bunch of new ones :/ I honestly never thought the main app was too bad, but recently it's truly become terrible. Never shows notifications/private messages correctly, photos/profiles take ages to load, the main page doesn't always load completely and is left with a white space, forcing you to refresh and wait ages for it to load up again... It's truly a bad app.
They really have no room for it... Top right is for sorting options on News Feed, top left is universal for menu... With this interface, the camera button is basically always there unless you're browsing. Even if they did integrate it into the stock Facebook app, I could see it lagging a bit much (the stock app already does that for me ). As much as I'd love to see this included with the stock app, there are a few things stopping it: Not everyone takes photos There really is no plausible way I could think of to integrate this as nicely as the Camera app does. It would only use more resources from an already slow Facebook app.
