Introduction
Facebook is the world most popular social media platform, with over a billion users. We all love using this platform, although our reasons for using this platform might be different. Personally speaking, I love using Facebook for online marketing. I can't even recall the last time I made a post or post my photo on Facebook. That notwithstanding, I still spend time on Facebook, viewing my friend's pictures, and reading some exciting stories.
I would love to discuss the different reason why people uses this app. But that's not what I'll be talking about in this post. Instead, I will be talking about the apps we use to access our Facebook accounts.
The official Facebook app is the most popularly used app when Facebooking with over a billion downloads. I'm not surprised by those numbers. After all, there isn't much to hate about this app. Personally, the Facebook app is one of the best apps I ever used. It's simple and user-friendly. It has an excellent design, etc.
Although the Facebook app is good and packed with great features, there are still some essential features I wish this app had.
In this post, I'll be reviewing an open-source third-party Facebook app with those feature missing on the Facebook app. I will be discussing and comparing this app with the official Facebook app.
What is Frost-for-Facebook (shortly 'Frost')?
According to it developer AllanWang:
Frost is a third party Facebook wrapper geared towards design and functionality.I couldn't agree less with the developer's description after using this app. Frost is a third party Facebook wrapper with features that you can't find on the official Facebook mobile app.
The developer did put in a lot of work, and I must applaud him for that. After downloading and installing this app, I was not expecting much from it. But I was blown away by this app functionality and features. I've used a few third-party Facebook wrapper, but I've haven't seen any that beats this app in terms of features and functionalities.
Sincerely, I wasn't expecting much from this app when I first downloaded it. Because I didn't read it features before launching it. That's why I thought it would be like the other third-party Facebook apps I've used. But I was surprised and impressed by its amazing features and functionality.
Getting started
- Download Frost from it f-droid link
- Since it a Facebook wrapper, you must first log in into your Facebook account.
- After a successful login, the app then welcomes you with a message that says, "Welcome to Frost."
The welcome screen of this app is a bit different from the welcome screen I used to see on other apps. - The next welcome page is where you select your preferred theme.
The other part of the welcome page describes some of its outstanding features. - The next step after the welcome page is a pop up showing the changelog of the app. Click 'Great,' and you are ready to use the app.
Features
Here's is a list of all its features
- Support for multiple accounts and fast switching
- Full theming across all activities
- PIP videos
- Overlaying browser to read posts and get right back to your previous task
- Extensive notification support, with bundling, filtering, battery-friendly scheduling, icons, and multiuser support
- Context menu from any link via long press
- Native image viewer and downloader via long press
- Reactive based loading
- True multiuser support, along with multiuser notifications
- Fully swipable overlays
- Fully customizable tabs
- Video Downloading
- Notes
Like I said earlier, Facebook app is one of the best apps I've ever used. Nevertheless, there are features that I wish were included in it. In the section, I'll be discussing those outstanding features in Frost that are not in Facebook official app.
Theme Customization
We've all gotten used to the famous blue and white theme of Facebook. It calm, it friendly and other description you might want to add. But since Facebooking is something I do all the time, even at night. I've always wished the official Facebook app has a dark theme option. But it doesn't. This feature is the first reason why Frost is now my best third party Facebook app. Frost has a theme customization option. With four beautiful theme options: Light, Dark, Amoled, Glass. I've used the four themes, and I'm impressed. Thou my favorite is the AMOLED theme. I must say, the developer did an excellent job, including this option.
Write overlay button
This feature allows users to access the post option anywhere on the homepage. On Facebook app to make a post, you have to be on the top of the news feed page. But after going through thousands of post. I still have to go back to the top of the page to make a post. I wish the Facebook app had an overlay post icon. That way I can click and go the compose message page, without going back to the top of the news feed. Well, Facebook app doesn't have this feature. But Frost has it. This is yet another feature I love in this app. The write overlay button allowed me to make a post and continue from where I was in my news feed. Instead of scrolling to the top as it is done with the Facebook app.
Downloading of videos
With millions of videos on Facebook. There are videos I wish to download to my phone but I can't cos this feature is not available on the Facebook app. The only thing users can do is to save the video. Well, this doesn't help very much. Since downloading the video helps save data and stores the video on the user's device. But this feature is included in Frost. I can easily download videos straight to my phone storage without the need for a third-party Facebook video downloading software.
To be able to download a video. You need to enable PIP video features. Which you do by clicking the setting icon, next is the 'Behaviour option,' then the 'Enable PIP.' Without enabling this feature, you won't be able to see the download button when playing a clip.
Picture-in-picture videos
Some people love multitasking. The picture in picture mode allows multitasking. A user can be going through their news feed while watching a video clip. This feature is pretty cool. Another great feature but in included on Facebook app. But with Frost, I'm able to watch videos and go through other pages by enabling the PIP icon.
How to Enable PIP videos
To enable this feature, click the settings icon at the top right corner of the app. Click the" Behavior option," then scroll to the button of the lists. Tick the Enable PIP.
If this PIP feature is not enabled, you can't use this feature or even see the PIP icon.
Notes
This feature is feature allows user's write notes on Facebook. This is my first time seeing a Note feature on Facebook, and I'm impressed.
Just as our usual note apps. There is a text box for 'title' and the 'body' of the post. I can also choose who sees my note and who doesn't. But the thing about this feature is since Facebook doesn't have the 'note feature' you can only see your notes on your timeline. While Frost has a tab named 'Notes" where all user's notes are collected and arranged. So it easily accessible with Frost.
Project updates
The Project has had a total of 83 release from its initial release of Frost v0.3 on June 23, 2017.
The last version released was six days ago as of the time of making this post, which is Frost v2.3.1.
Here's a list of the changes made according to its developers.
- Hide all story panels if enabled
- Prevent swipe to refresh if not at the very top
- Add vertical swipe to dismiss when viewing images
- Add horizontal scroll support for web views
- Fix theme for F-Droid builds
Summary
For years I've used the official Facebook app while trying out other third-party Facebook app. In an attempt to get the features I've always wish were included on the Facebook app. But none of those apps gave me what I wanted. Until I came across Frost on F-droid. An open-source third party Facebook wrapper with impressive design and features that can't be found on the Facebook mobile app. With all the feature present in this app. I would say this app has what it takes to be the best Facebook mobile app.
In this post, I've been able to list and discuss some of Frost outstanding features.
From the list of features, you can see that Frost offers a better user experience than the official Facebook app. I strongly recommend that you try out this app. I'm sure you will love it.
Resources
The images used in this post are all from my screenshot.