Facebook is having trouble developing an ideal Android app because of fragmentation, but the social network has opened an Android Beta Testing program on Thursday to try to resolve the issues.
There are many versions of Android running on all sorts of devices, and this creates a problem for developers who want to build an app that looks and scales great on a range of tablets and smartphones. With that said, Google introduced new framework at I/O that enables developers to create Google Groups for beta testers. Google Groups will allow willing testers to download beta versions of apps from the Google Play Store.
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Facebook's new Android Beta Testing program utilises one of these Google Groups, providing all Android users with the opportunity to sign up and begin beta testing Facebook for Android. In a post on the Facebook Engineering page, Facebook claimed the ultimate goal of the program was to push out "more reliable and better performing" Facebook for Android updates.
"Beginning today, we are announcing a beta program for Facebook for Android," wrote Facebook. "This new tool will help us get performance data and feedback from more people ahead of release across a wider range of devices and versions of Android."
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To begin beta testing, simply sign up for the Google Group and opt-in. Once that's done, go to Google Play and download Facebook. Once users have the app installed, they can begin using the beta and reporting bugs. Just go to the new "Report Bug" icon in the Settings menu to submit any issues.
Facebook will use all the data reported to make Facebook for Android better than ever. In addition, the social network has established a FB group to encourage discussion between beta testers and developers.