Facebook for Windows Phone 8 faces crash issues, fix released

If you're a Windows Phone user and have the Facebook app installed, chances are that you’ve been facing an issue where the social networking app on your phone kept  crashing. There is an update that fixes the continuous crashing issue, and it comes less than a day after users began to complain about the issue.

Facebook pushed out yet another app update that bumped the app for Windows Phone 8 up to 4.2.1.0 and for Windows Phone 7 to 2.9.1. Joe Belfiore, a Microsoft employee tweeted, "Thanks to our friends at Facebook: a new FB app update is now in Store. It addresses a crash some people were hitting in the last update".

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The widespread bug didn’t seem to be too good for the app’s reputation as the Windows Phone Store was filled with one-star, negative reviews. “Worthless application. Everytime I try to look at a post it shuts the whole program down,” read one review, while another said, “It is horrible. Please make a better app!” If you scroll down, you will find plenty of one-worded comments that seemed to have been censored by the Store itself, showing just how widespread this problem had been.

It’s interesting to note that the Facebook app for Windows Phone in question is published by Microsoft and not Facebook itself. Users of the platform have been hoping Facebook would take the reins and develop an app for Windows Phone that puts it in the same bracket as its iOS and Android apps, but it doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon.

Facebook seems to be in a very giving mood on the whole. It revealed Facebook Home for Android, a launcher skin, only a week ago. Available on select smarthphones like Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+, the launcher personalises your phone to wear a Facebook skin.

Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed.

Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away.

Earlier this week, Facebook launched Chat Heads for the Facebook app on iOS too. 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.

With so much love for Android and iOS, we wonder whether Facebook will be able to sprinkle some of it on Windows Phone too.