AIR for Facebook UWP - anything but the bloated official client, eh?

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The canny way to use Facebook on Windows 10 Mobile is, of course, to use the web site in Edge. No bloated 100MB client, no wastage, and almost full functionality. But there are ways to use the web site without actually using the browser. I'm talking about web wrappers, of course, applications which provide a customised front end to the Facebook web experience. SlimSocial has been my 'go to' here because it adds the option of a dark theme, but this new 'AIR for Facebook' is another valid option, providing a proper Start screen application shortcut and some useful in-site shortcuts.

From the Store description:

  • Fast & Lightweight
  • Download media (images- .jpg .png .gif , video- .mp4) to Pictures library
  • Like, React, Comment, Share as you do on Facebook
  • check who's online of your friends
  • Opens external links in the app itself

This bullet list is a trifle misleading, since the first three at least are just down to this using web site in the first place, but you do get a couple of useful shortcut controls. I've done a couple of screenshots to give you an idea:

ScreenshotScreenshot

Note the 'Online' shortcut in the toolbar, jumping you to which of your friends is online. And note the 'My Profile' menu function, again jumping you to the appropriate Facebook page and saving you time. External web links open in AIR for Facebook, with the menu function shown above left a way to open something up in the full Edge browser, perhaps for adding to your favourites?

Normally I'm a little scornful of cash-in-quick web wrappers, but a) this is free, b) it does add extra functions, and c) the official Facebook client for Windows 10 is so awfully bloated that at this point I'm happy to recommend anything small and lean(!)

You can grab this in the Store here.

Source / Credit: Store