When the App Store went live on July 10, 2008, Facebook 2.0 was there. It was sleek, blue, and revolutionary. Users didn't just check Facebook anymore; they carried it. : Within 24 hours, it was the #1 free app.
: It set the blueprint for every social media app we use today—the infinite scroll, the tab bar, and the mobile notification. Facebook 2.0 For Iphone 3G
It was July 2008, and the air in Palo Alto was electric. At Facebook HQ, the "Mobile Team" wasn't a department; it was three guys in a corner fueled by espresso and the knowledge that the world was about to change. The Go to product viewer dialog for this item. When the App Store went live on July 10, 2008, Facebook 2
: Abandoning the "grid" layout of the first experimental app. : Within 24 hours, it was the #1 free app
The developers didn't even have final hardware for most of the cycle. They worked on simulators, guessing how a thumb would feel sliding across glass instead of a trackball.
Before this, "mobile Facebook" was a clunky web page you loaded on a Blackberry. It was slow, text-heavy, and ugly. The mission for was simple but terrifying: rebuild the social network from scratch for a device that lived in a pocket.
: Introducing the News Feed as a living, breathing stream.