Today Facebook launched the much anticipated Timeline and Timeline mobile for Android and its HTML5 mobile site m.facebook.com. But Timeline mobile for the Facebook iOS app is nowhere to be found. Timeline on the iPhone will be available in a future update of the Facebook iOS app, a Facebook spokesperson tells us. For now, iPhone and iPad users will have to use Facebook Timeline through the mobile site.
There’s no doubt that Facebook Timeline will eventually go live for iOS apps. But for now, Facebook seems to be mostly focused on its HTML5 web app project. The fact that Timeline mobile isn’t going live for iOS anytime soon is proof of that.
Much like on the web version, Timeline mobile users can drop in a cover photo, browse photo albums and scroll through previous posts. These posts are horizontally swipeable so it’s possible to look at multiple photos without leaving Timeline.
Why Has Facebook Delayed Timeline For iOS?
At f8, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that all of Facebook’s features, including Timeline, would work on the mobile web. Facebook updated its Android app last week, and it features a UI that looks a lot like Facebook’s iPad app. Facebook will continue shifting to HTML5, converging its platform into a single UI. Indeed, Facebook Timeline does work on the mobile web.
Besides, Facebook and Apple have a history of bad blood that dates back to Apple Ping days. Facebook was supposed to integrate Ping, but it never did. Then Facebook integrated social music service, Spotify. When Apple released the iPhone4S, it baked Twitter, not Facebook, into iOS5.
Given this history, there’s no reason for Facebook to rush the Timeline update to its iOS apps. But will this situation echo the long wait for the Facebook iPad app?
