Facebook mobile developer: Android is 'sloppy'

Android needs to up its game for devs
Android needs to up its game for devs

The developer for the Facebook application on the iPhone has criticised Android and given reasons why the official app is poorer for Google phones.

Although recently getting a decent upgrade, the Facebook for Android application has always been the poorer cousin to the iPhone version, and Joe Hewitt, who helped created the Apple option, says it's down to the tools offered.

"The more I work with Android the more it reminds me of Windows… as in, it's really flexible, agnostic, and developer-friendly, but also really sloppily designed," he said on Twitter.

Like running through a meadow in linen trousers

However, despite the problems, he did give praise to the open-thinking way that Google offered up the Android platform, calling Apple overbearing and hinting that that presence may cause more developers to switch platforms:

"Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous, but the absence of big brother telling me what to do gives it a slight edge."

While the criticism of Android is probably just, it's important to remember the platform is less that two years old, and is developing at an incredible rate, something which Hewitt agrees with:

"Android fragmentation will hopefully stabilize within two years, and if not, at least people upgrade phones much more often than computers."

Let's just hope Google gets its act together to help create an app development platform to really start getting some quality options into the App Market.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief


Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.