Facebook Connect on mobile devices is pointless without hybrid platform strategy

Facebook Connect on iPhone is an extremely abused feature often misused by developers.

Today I was talking to someone about their iPhone application product that made generally heavy use of Facebook Connect to publish stories to a user’s feed.  The product posted a story to the user’s feed which when clicked went (and continues to go) to a splash screen askin the user to download the app on their iPhone.  I recommended that they build out for the web and potentially mobile web keeping in mind the fact that users on the receiving end may not click on the story on an iPhone.  His answer: right now we’re iPhone app and iPhone app only.  In fact, caring about other platforms wasn’t in even on the long-term radar for them.

It’s one thing to say “we don’t have the bandwidth for that” but a completely other to disregard the obvious truth that users may not be on their iPhones when reading Facebook stories.  Instead, put *something* of actionable value to the audience so that you get the intended effect of true viralness.  Even if a friend were to have an iPhone, there’d be a good chance that she be on their laptop viewing Facebook.  What then?   A slight imagination could expect her to go back to her iPhone, search for the app in the app store and download it then – or perhaps download from her laptop through iTunes and then sync.  Seriously?

This is the fundamental problem in harnessing the value of Facebook Connect on mobile devices.  You need an all-inclusive strategy covering every platform near and far in order for it to have the intended effect of having the audience do what you need them to do.  Case in point is Twitter – they don’t necessarily have a client for each platform but they make sure that when a user clicks on a twitter profile for any user no matter whether on a laptop or a mobile device, it renders the way it should.   More and more companies are following suit with mobile versions of their website and perform quick browser detection routines and redirecting users accordingly.  I’m waiting for Wordpress to officially accept WPtouch and bake it in as a standard feature considering it renders well on webkit browsers (Android and Safari alike).

But back to the main point: Facebook Connect as a viral technology on iPhone needs serious review and thought by developers who intend to use it in the first place.