5 features we would rather have than the Facebook phone

Rumours and speculations about a Facebook phone have been making rounds for quite some time now. Whether the phone will run on Facebook’s own OS or the site is collaborating with a renowned company (rumoured to be HTC), nothing is clear yet. Rather everything has been kept under tight wraps. With the event slated for later today, the buzz is that Zuckerberg may finally uncloak Facebook's social-centric phone.

Do we really need a Facebook phone? We don’t think so, as we are already spoilt for choices among the hoards of phones/smartphones. The mobile market is abuzz with a plethora of low, mid and high-end phones, not to mention the stiff competition among OSEs that have been consistently improving over the years. So, while we still would be connected to Facebook via the umpteen, branded phone options that we have, Facebook can focus on several other aspects of the social network. So, instead of a Facebook phone, we would love to see this wishlist come true.

Who viewed your profile/images

We are sure this has been on the wishlist of many ever since Facebook was conceived, unless you have been sneaking a peek at someone’s photos and are secretly wishing the feature is never enabled. For the rest of us, it would be great to know who has been snooping around our profiles and especially photos. So, there is no more lurking and next time you spend ample of time ogling at someone’s photo, everyone will know.

Dislike button

Facebook has become a platform to share your joys, emotions and also vent out your frustration. With so many political, religious and some utterly useless opinions by people, we wish Facebook could just invest its time in a “Dislike” button instead of a phone. The Dislike button has been on the wishlist of many and several malicious minds have even created scams that allured users to click on links that would enable a Dislike button. Well, there is no Dislike button yet, but we would love to see one.

The Dislike button

Improved video chat capabilities

Facebook is a much popular and refined social network compared to Google+, and we often wonder why Facebook hasn’t included the video chat functionality like Google’s Hangout. Facebook could instead work on a cool video chat feature that will allow group video chatting and conferencing with friends and colleagues. Facebook is all about connecting with people, so multiple video chats would be even better.

Managing photos

Whether a Sunday brunch or a week long vacation, people love sharing all those photos on Facebook. Photos have become an integral part of Facebook’s sharing experience and the social network could make it a notch better. Copying and moving around photos on Facebook is a tedious task. The social network could spruce up this experience with the ability to copy and move multiple photos at a time to different photo albums. This could add to the convenience of users and even photography professionals with their business pages.

Robust search

Facebook is a hub for content sharing and also transforming into a full fledged marketing and advertising platform, so the social network should better divert its attention towards building a robust search engine. The search engine should allow users to swiftly run through Facebook for events, businesses and even people. Moreover, a significant number of users access the site through mobiles; the search engine should assist them in finding the right content quickly on smaller screens too.

While we are spolit for choices in the vast and proliferating phone market, a Facebook phone could be lost in the heaps and heaps of phones after the hype settles down. What would you prefer – the above mentioned features or a new Facebook phone?