Windows 8 has been out for a few weeks now, and since then we have seen a number of major apps made for the operating system"s "Modern" user interface get released. That includes apps from WinZip, The Weather Channel, Barnes and Noble"s Nook app and more. Even Twitter has admitted that it will be releasing a native Windows 8 app in the months to come.
However, there is one major app, for a pretty huge online service, that is currently not available for Windows 8. Facebook, whether you like them or not, has over 1 billion users around the world. The lack of an official Facebook app is a pretty big hole in the Windows 8 app pool. However, the current status of getting a Facebook app for Windows 8 seems to be complicated. A few weeks ago, a spokesperson for the company stated, "We only build the iOS and Android FB apps. You should check in with Microsoft on anything related to Windows 8."
That would seem to suggest that Microsoft has a Facebook app in the works, and indeed the company developed the official Facebook app for Windows Phone. But Microsoft seems to want to put the pressure on Facebook in regards to a Windows 8 app. A spokesperson for that company told Venture Beat, "If you have a question about a specific app, you should ask the developer." That would seem to suggest that Microsoft has no such plans to make a Facebook app for the OS.
Yes, there are some third party Windows 8 apps that have Facebook support (FlipToast is the best known solution) but having a native app for Facebook would seem to be the best solution for everyone. So here is what the situation apparently looks like: Facebook doesn"t want to make an app for Windows 8, but Microsoft doesn"t seem to want to step in and do it themselves, as they did with the Windows Phone Facebook app. In our mind, there"s only one way to settle this:
Let"s get Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to code the Windows 8 Facebook app himself.
Hey, Zuckerberg might be the founder and CEO of a company that has a service that is used by a fair fraction of the entire world at the moment. However, in his heart, we know that he is a coder. We know that he likes challenges. We also know that he still participates in hackathons at Facebook, where employees try to come up with new software products and ideas in the space of a few hours or days.
In fact, one recent report from News.com claimed that Zuckerberg"s participation in a hackathon with both Facebook and Microsoft coders present in 2011 helped Microsoft come up with its recent revamp of the Bing search service, which integrates Facebook into search results. Let"s not forget that Microsoft invested some money in Facebook before it launched its IPO earlier this year. Microsoft owns a small fraction of the company as a result.
In other words, Microsoft has used Zuckerberg"s information for their own gain, and Zuckerberg and Facebook got benefits from Microsoft"s investment. Yet, in the case of making apps for Windows 8, Facebook oddly doesn"t seem interested in making a program for an OS that already has a user base in the millions just a few weeks after its launch.
So, we humbly ask that if Mr. Zuckerberg is reading this, he should take up the mantle and make the Windows 8 Facebook app himself. A couple of weeks ago, we witnessed some pretty impressive Windows 8 apps that were made in the space of a couple of days at Microsoft"s BUILD conference. We certainly think that Zuckerberg could make a Windows 8 Facebook app a reality just with his own knowledge of how Facebook works.
Would he actually make a Facebook app for Windows 8? The odds are against it. But we know he"s smart enough to do it and he would likely do a great job making the app. We also think it would be a great publicity idea for both Facebook and Microsoft to put out a press release saying that the official Windows 8 Facebook app in the story was ready to go and that it was personally coded by Zuckerberg.
In any case, an official Facebook app for Windows 8 is needed soon, if only to show that the platform, and its "Modern" touch screen UI, is a viable one. Let"s hope either Facebook or Microsoft gets one in motion in the very near future.
Images via Facebook and FlipToast