Report: Facebook Android App Coming Soon

G mobile phone/facebook app iconFacebook has not shied away from expanding to mobile platforms, offering applications for smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry and Windows Mobile and Palm devices. Phones running Google's Android mobile operating system have been a notable exception.

But the social network is working with Google to launch a Facebook app for Android devices as soon as the end of this week, according to TechCrunch. The tech blog says the Facebook app will have a more limited range of features than its popular iPhone app -- omitting an inbox, for instance. But it will offer the full stream of information that users find on Facebook.

Earlier this month, the Android and Me blog had hinted that a Facebook Android app was in the works based on online images of forthcoming Android phones from T-Mobile and Sony Ericsson showing a Facebook icon in their app catalogs.

What took so long for Facebook to come out with an Android app? Relations between the two Internet powerhouses have not exactly been close, as they compete to shape the Web to their own ends.

But with Android-powered phones proliferating and Google intent on challenging the iPhone, it appears that the two have found common ground to collaborate on an app. Google even loaned Facebook an Android engineer for the project, according to TechCrunch.

Separately, the upgrade of Facebook's iPhone app will reportedly include new features such as the ability to RSVP to events, create new photo albums and a redesigned home screen. Facebook says it has more than 30 million active mobile users.

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