Use Facebook’s Mobile Site for a Faster, Battery-Friendly Facebook
via LifeHacker
Facebook’s app isn’t as bad as it used to be, but it still has its fair share of problems: it’s a little slow, drains your battery even when you aren’t using it, and requires all sorts of permissions on your phone. Want something better? The Facebook mobile site is nearly identical…without all the crap.
This tip is old as dirt, but somewhere along the line, we forgot about Facebook’s mobile site and ITworld reminded us about it today. If you’re constantly frustrated by the Facebook app, here’s what you need to do to get rid of it.
Android users:
1. Open the Play Store app and search for Facebook. Click the Uninstall button on its main page. (If it came pre-installed and you can’t get rid of it, go to Settings > Accounts and just remove your Facebook account. It’ll serve the same purpose).
2. Open your browser of choice and head to facebook.com. Log in, then press the Menu button and save Facebook’s home page to your bookmarks.
3. Head to your home screen and long-press on an empty space. Choose Shortcuts from the menu, select Bookmark, and choose the Facebook bookmark you just created. Now you have a Facebook shortcut on your home screen that takes you to a faster, permission-free, more battery-friendly Facebook.
iPhone users:
1. Press and hold on the Facebook app and click the “X” to uninstall it.
2. Open Safari, head to facebook.com, and log in.
3. Click the “Share” button in Safari’s bottom bar and choose “Add to Home Screen.” Name it whatever you want, then tap “Add.” Now you have a Facebook shortcut on your home screen that takes you to a faster, more battery-friendly Facebook.
iPhone users won’t notice as big of a change as Android users do, but it’s worth a shot if your Facebook app seems slow.
If you absolutely need notifications, ITworld recommends turning on email notifications instead, which should help a bit with the battery problems on Android. How sucky Facebook’s app is depends on your phone (the mobile site is noticeably faster on my Galaxy Nexus), so if you find that Facebook’s app is satisfactory, then obviously you have no need for this tip. But if you can’t stand to use the official Facebook app one second longer, you’d be surprised how good the mobile site is. Apart from a few gestures and animations, you’ll barely notice a difference.