Rant: The Nokia Social App – Please stay signed in! (And a bunch of other annoyances)

Before I begin my coursework I’ll let off some steam and rant about the social app.

The Nokia Social App

It really feels like a half baked offering when compared to something like gravity:

• Scrolling – why the hell is it so crap? You’ve got smooth scrolling in browser, photos, contacts, apps yet here it’s like I’ve stepped back to the first N97 firmware. Yes it’s still kinetic scrolling somewhat but it’s so painstakingly SLOW and CHOPPY.
• Titleless photouploads: The NEW update allows you to send photos to social places immediately after taking them. But why autosend without a title? On the plus side it compresses a picture and goes up pretty quick which might be OK for facebook (where it goes into a random “Mobile Uploads” folder). For twitter though, you kind of need to caption images most of the time. I wish PixelPipe would be preinstalled and let me upload like I did in N900 (where it also gave you option to compress photos in settings, titles and a million other social places not just facebook or twitter)
• Forgetful sign-in: I thought it was just me until I got replies saying it was happening to other folk too. The app keeps making me log in OVER and OVER and OVER for EACH social network after a few hours. Very annoying when you just maybe want to read some statuses, or just quickly update one. It’s NOT an issue with security as Ovi Store remembers my password and I can easily make purchases without ever typing my password. This is why I go to other apps and even bookmarked twitter sites like tweetgo as that’s just left signed in. Perhaps it’s to prevent the old Frape or “Facebook Rape” (basics are that your status is abused, possibly many other features of your profile but that’s not possible even if you are logged in to social app as it’s very limited.
• Ovi Log in fail. Maybe it’s just me. The initial OVI account log in was also somewhat difficult (required to even let you sign in to twitter/facebook). I already had an account but got convinced mine  got deleted when I was allowed to sign in again with THE SAME email address and THE SAME phone number which is now associated with a +1 account I will NEVER use. Shame really as when you do this, if you switch your phone to say another new S^3 device, the phone picks up your account name.
• Missing Features: There’s a few. Main ones for me – Twitter: When clicking a tweet there’s no retweeting, option to DM. Just reply. Facebook: photo tagging.
• Stop re-inventing the wheel with a cube: It’s an absolute shame we do not have an official twitter or facebook app that’s to the grade on other platforms. We have the AWESOME gravity twitter for years folks have wanted Nokia to make their official twitter app (but would @janole have gotten the same room to keep giving us new awesome features?). e.g. Tweetie 2 now twitter for iPhone. Though iPhone has a crapload of great twitter apps. Gravity is really the only decent option. On a side note, Mark Guim from TheNokiaBlog says that “Nokia is looking at partnerships – no more looking to buy or make everything” – Bloomberg (orig article) says something’s coming on 23rd of Nov and Mark asked what Partnerships you’d like to see to which James Whatley commented: How about a parnership with @janole for their social client? YES PLEASE.
• Well, let’s end on a positive. It’s free, the single stream is great if you connect your twitter and facebook friends together so they all get the same statuses – the facebook calendar/events integration with phone calendar is great if you’re a facebook user. It’s kind of OK once you’re signed in and perhaps in a few months time after a truck load of polishing we can all sing social app’s praises.

btw – These RANTS are not simply to bash Nokia but are little nudges in hope for improvement because we know Nokia can certainly do better.

What about you guys – any issues or improvements you’d like to see with the Social App?

Tags: Nokia, Nokia N8, Nseries, Rant, Symbian^3

Category: Nokia, Nseries, Rant, Symbian