Facebook is one of those things you love or hate, and even when you love it, there is still likely some angst. The official Facebook app for Windows 10 Mobile functionally gets a lot right, but its performance is rather atrocious due to the software development (it infamously uses Osmeta).
Spotted on Reddit SlimSocial for Facebook is an attractive and free alternative to the bloated app for Facebook. While it misses some features its ability to launch quickly and reformat that information presented makes the overall experience more enjoyable.
SlimSocial for Facebook is a UWP app (only for Mobile at the moment) that is a free, ad-free Github project. Features and options include:
- Lock the Facebook bar (top)
- Reorder posts to show latest new first (not based on an algorithm)
- Hide sponsored post
- Center the text of the posts
- Add space between posts
- Dark theme
All of those greatly enhance the experience in using Facebook on Windows 10 Mobile. Additionally, the app is very fast to launch and load data as it is pulling the website down to the app. Once you remove sponsored content, add spacing, and reorder it to a news-first feed suddenly Facebook is a lot more useful.
The app is also only 909.2 KB in size versus the 278MB official app (which also requires 2GB of RAM now, yikes).
Nonetheless, this is likely not a complete replacement for more hardcore users. Currently, the app lacks notifications, and contact and calendar syncing. There is also no handoff to the separate Messenger app as it is done within SlimSocial itself. Finally, the app's Live Tile is not the prettiest, and the auto-hiding of the navigation bar (bottom) may annoy some users.
Those are likely some deal breakers for many of you, but those who want a casual experience I highly recommend SlimSocial. Being on Github, there is no reason this app can't expand to the PC and gain some new features if the community supports it. Additionally, on the phone, you could always use this as a companion to the real Facebook app letting it handle notifications and contact syncing.
As mentioned earlier, SlimSocial for Facebook is free and ad-free so grab it and give it a spin to see if it fits into your routine. Don't forget to drop a positive review for the app if you like it to give thanks to the developer.
Download SlimSocial on the Windows Store
