Two Small Features of Facebook's Camera iPhone App

Over the last week, I have been using the Facebook Camera application as my default mobile camera - in part as a test and in part because I love the ability to upload multiple pictures / create albums (that feature alone is a time saver). Here are two small features I like and noticed... and note: this is my last Facebook Camera post!:

1. When you upload an album, Facebook inherits the location from the iPhone geo-tag. Seems like a small and relatively obvious aspect - but it is strangely not done by other photo-heavy apps like Path. And it is particularly useful when uploading albums - which often happens after the event and therefore offsite. As an example, the below screenshot remembers the location of the photos (even when I am physically away) - in the core Facebook App, location is determined by proximity - meaning that tagging has to happen when on / near premise.

Big time-saver. Very smart.

2. When you like a photo from within the app, Facebook illuminates the like button and gives it color. It's the first time I've seen Facebook do this and, although it is a very small UI tweak, it signifies that an interaction has been done (a current problem for Facebook's core mobile app) and it adds some color & some fun.

Facebook Camera iOS App Knows Who You Are On Install

Two weeks ago, Facebook launched their Facebook Pages iOS app. And last week, Facebook launched their Facebook Camera app.

One of the interesting aspects of the two applications is that their welcome screens greet you with the following pages: blue screen, big get started button, and (in the Facebook Camera example) a greeting specifically for me ("Continue as Ryan Spoon").

The Pages example is easy to explain: press "log in" and Facebook authenticates the user via the core Facebook Application already installed on the device. Easy. And of course an user of the Pages app will already have the Facebook app... it's easy to be presumptuous when you have Facebook's reach / scale.

The Camera app is more interesting - and the first time I have seen an example like this. It is also something only someone like Facebook can do (few others have that reach). It is remarkably fast, efficient, cool.... and effective - no worry about conversions, funnels, etc.

How do they do it? Here's a Quora post explaining:

Here is the Facebooks Phone.

Much has been made of the rumored Facebook Phone.... specifically around the hardware component (see the Techmeme stream here). Regardless of whether or not a Facebook branded device will soon exist, the Facebook Phone already exists as an OS of sorts.... comprised of core applications. Here is my iPhone's homescreen. There is a folder dedicated to Facebook with the core Facebook Application, Facebook Messages, Facebook Camera, and Facebook Pages. It is not hard to imagine standalone apps for contacts, calendar, places, etc. Said differently, if you think about the phone's core applications, Facebook can replicate many of them:- Contacts :: FB Graph - Calendar :: FB Events - SMS :: FB Messages - Email :: FB Messages or blown out email product - Maps :: FB Places - Camera :: FB Camera - Media :: Open Graph / Facebook App Platform?