Facebook for iOS gets Chat Heads

Facebook has launched a blitzkrieg of sorts for updates after the launch of Facebook Home. After having readied a bevy of updates for Android, Facebook has turned its focus on its iOS app. Facebook for iOS has received an update that gives it the much desired Chat Heads feature along with a few other new additions and tweaks.

With the Chat Heads you can now chat with your friends from wherever you are within the app. Mind you, you will not be able to see Chat Heads once you are outside the Facebook app on your iOS devices, since Apple does not allow apps to leave the sandbox this way yet.

You will be able to hold multiple conversations from within the Facebook app without needing to run to the Messenger or open the messages tab. The Chat Heads will line up neatly on the iPhone or iPod Touch screen. On the iPad, the Chat Heads will come arranged vertically on the left of your screen. You can flick these Chat Heads around on your screen if they hamper your reading and you can flick them towards the bottom of the screen to make them disappear.

Chat Heads and Stickers! iOS users, rejoice!

Unlike in Android, Chat Heads on the iOS version of Facebook will not work with SMS.

Facebook for iOS now also has Stickers that will help you “liven up your messages”. Stickers are essentially these colourful, cute looking large emojis that you can send in a message with a single tap, quite like you can send emoticons. These large Stickers are bound to make conversations a lot more fun than sending those tiny emoticons whose emotions you can hardly make out.

The social networking giant is also rolling out new feeds like Music, Photo and Games in the revamped News Feed you will get along with this latest update. The iPad app is also set to get “brighter, more beautiful stories” in the News Feed.

Of course, the rollout is a little slow, but you will start getting these features on your iOS devices starting now. Here at tech2, the iPod Touch that we were using received Chat Heads, but not the newer News Feed or Stickers in the messages. Facebook promises us that these features will be available to everyone soon. We’re waiting!

You can grab version 6.0 of the Facebook for iOS app from the App Store here.

Meanwhile, there is good news for people who have been waiting for Facebook Home. The social media giant has made its Android launcher available to users outside the US now. Of course, Facebook Home is available only on select devices right now namely, Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+.

If you do use any of these devices anywhere in the world, you can download the app from Google Play for free.