Facebook iPhone app update adds timeline, new bugs

Timeline -- the Facebook feature that catalogues your pics and updates chronologically -- has been added to the social network's iPhone app, but many users are unhappy with the update.

The updated app has a rating of just two out of five on the App Store. That's compared to an average of four out of five for all versions. And considering the higher rating is drawn from nearly 1,000 times as many reviews, that's quite some drop-off. So what happened?

People who've downloaded Facebook 4.1 are complaining about a few things. Chat is a major bugbear, as the new version doesn't let you disable it. So unlucky if you want to avoid that annoying person who's always online. And always wants to chat. No matter how late it is.

Others say the timeline update causes the app to keep crashing, that the app is slow (especially over 3G), that friend requests aren't visible, and that the ability to delete pictures has been yanked. One persistent comment from reviewers is that they'd rather access Facebook through Safari -- hardly a ringing endorsement.

"Absolute waste of time using this app to be honest," one reviewer wrote, "Don't download or use." Another put simply: "Absolute utter rubbish!!!!!!" But considering their username is 'Rubbish' perhaps they're not the most even-handed reviewer in the world.

Timeline, which went live for everyone last week, presents all your Facebook activity by year, letting you scroll down the page to go through everything you've done since joining Facebook. (Most of which will be while you were drunk, according to one survey.) An iPad version is said to be coming soon, so let's hope Facebook fixes the faults before then.

Have you tried the updated app? Let us know below or over on -- *cough* -- Facebook.