TextOne by example (part 3): Facebook friend search and federation

ProcessOne - Mickaël Rémond - February 01, 2011

TextOne integrates well with Facebook, in a non-intrusive way.

We know that many of our users have already a good deal of friends in different places. We use the address book on the phone to simplify chat and discovery of contact using email (see TextOne by example Part 2: email fedearation). In two words, TextOne federates with email, thus you can chat with email users.

However, many of you also have a large network of friends on Facebook. We deal with that situation in two ways: Facebook application and Facebook messaging federation (email).

Facebook application

If you log into Facebook and point your browser to http://apps.facebook.com/textone/ you can add it to your applications. This is a Facebook application that allows you to link your TextOne ID (username) to your Facebook account.

On the following screen you can put your TextOne credentials:

If they are correct, your TextOne ID is broadcast on your wall to your friends (or every one if your prefer to select that option):

Once this is done, TextOne Facebook application presents you with your Facebook contacts that have already done the same process:

With the Facebook app it is easier to find your Facebook friends that are also using TextOne.

Facebook Messages federation

With the upcoming release of Facebook Messages (email + chat + internal Facebook messages, all in one), you get new opportunity to communicate. Throught the strong support of email in TextOne, you can have live chat conversations with Facebook contacts, without needing a Facebook account.

We had the chance to play with Facebook Messages beta and here is a preview of what is coming for everyone.

In this case, my contact initiated a conversation from Facebook Messages to my TextOne email address:

Here is what the conversation looks like from TextOne:

So, it means you can transparently discuss with Facebook contacts using Facebook Messages from TextOne. It even supports photos sending and receiving.

Do not forget however that you are not forced to use Facebook email addresses to communicate with your contact. They probably have a standard email address, supplied by more conventional providers.

Our philosophy? We respect our users

We want to give you the opportunity to link TextOne to your Facebook account and share your ID with friends in a controlled and non-intrusive way. We do not spam you with a message on your mobile each time a user is joining: you will receive a message only if your friends asks it specifically.

We want also to separate the Facebook application from the iPhone and Android application to keep the application lightweight and not cluttered the experience with any Facebook settings inside the mobile app. If you are not a Facebook user yet, there is no reason to bother you with Facebook linking in our application. Moreover, this web approach works with all mobile clients, existing and future.

This is the same reason why we will never bother you to beg for an iTunes rating your our application. We appreciate if you give us a good rating on iTunes, but will not clutter our application experience until you end up doing so.

Finally, we provide you with a tool that is privacy friendly and work in a clean and simple way. We hope you will enjoy and share the way we respect our users.

We know that with this radical stance, our application usage will be slower to take off, but we are convinced that doing the “right thing” for our users will pay off on the long term.

Read the whole “TextOne by example” series:

• TextOne by example (part 1): XMPP federation
• TextOne by example (part 2): email federation
• TextOne by example (part 3): Facebook friend search and federation

Categories: Companies  ProcessOne  

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