MB Notifications for FB (Free)

NOTE WELL!! The new version of the Facebook API disables several friends-related requests, so features using those in my app (friends lists, requests, birthdays, online and lost friends) DON'T WORK anymore.

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Tutorial: http://mikebannion.altervista.org/tutorial.html

Let's face it, when it comes to Android, whether you like the official Facebook application or not it has one major flaw: no notifications! And this is even more true when you don't use any app for Facebook at all but just the browser, and yet want to keep updated. I frankly hate this: why would you have to check for updates yourself when you could get automatically notified whenever a notification from your Facebook account arrives, just as iPhone users do?

I decided to solve this issue for my own convenience, and so this is where this app chimes in: a lightweight and fast application to get notifications from Facebook, what you decide, at the interval you decide and reported as you decide. Nothing else, just as plain and simple as effective! And the service can be started automatically at boot if you want, so once you install it you can forget about it.


This is the free version of the app, and as such is limited to the following features:

* get generic notifications, friend requests, event invitations and private messages in the status bar;
* highest frequency for checking notifications is 20 minutes;
* open notifications in the official Facebook app, if installed, or in the browser;
* manual check of new notifications as well, if you want;
* update your status message.


Buy the paid version to have access to all the exciting features, including:

* get birthdays, pokes, online friends and removed friends notifications as well;
* like/comment/share/reshare/RSVP posts and events associated with notifications directly within the app;
* frequency for checking notifications can be set to as low as 1 minute;
* open notifications in FriendCaster, Seesmic, Facebook Stream for Android or any other app of your choice;
* popup notifications as an alternative to status bar notifications;
* Several different widgets (1x1, 2x1 and 4x1) to control your notifications;
* open external apps directly when getting notifications rather than passing through this app;
* configure a night mode during which the app should sleep with you and do nothing;
* and much more!

Isn't this great? and what's even greater is all these cool features are just a buck away!
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.mikebannion.fbnotifications


Details on all the required permissions are at the end of this page.


IMPORTANT: the app only gets NEW and UNREAD notifications, meaning it won't download, for example, all the notifications you already saw before launching the app or between refreshes.


Icon set realized by Elisa!
Thanks to Matthew for the Gingerbread status bar icons!
Spanish translation realized by Luis López Moreno (lulomo18@gmail.com; www.llmgraphics.com)
Danish translation realized by Ramsus
German translation realized by Carsten Schläger (fsmcas@gmail.com; http://carstiboy.blogsport.eu)
Pull to refresh implemented thanks to this library: https://github.com/johannilsson/android-pulltorefresh


This application is not affiliated with Facebook. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.


PERMISSIONS EXPLAINED:

* android.permission.INTERNET: to get notifications from Facebook;
* android.permission.VIBRATE: for the optional vibrate functionality in notifications;
* android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: to avoid making unneeded requests if the network is unavailable;
* android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE: to save pictures associated with notifications in the SD cache (the internal cache alone may be emptied arbitrarily and as such force the app to download the picture again, wasting bandwidth)