Facebook Testing New Notification Bar on Android, With Profile Picture Included
The idea of a new and persistent notification bar on Android meant for Facebook alone has appeared last year and we haven’t heard anything since. Now it would appear that the Facebook app for Android is ready to integrate that bar into the software experience.
It would appear in the notification tray of the OS and stay in place even if there’s nothing new happening on FB. The new version that’s being tested right now adds your profile picture in the mix and a bunch of shortcuts to essential features of the app. It doesn’t look that bad, I have to say, but people may find it annoying to take up space of their notification area with yet another bunch of shortcuts.
Also, seeing your face all the time in the notification area may be weird, even though you may already experience that thanks to Google+ integration. Right now the FB app is only available to a small group of people and luckily the feature can be turned off if you don’t like it.
