The Revenge of Android's Facebook Notifications

The Revenge of Android's Facebook Notifications

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I've just recently purchased the DROID RAZR MAXX as an upgrade to the DROID Pro that I've been fairly content with for the past year or so. Like most social butterflies of the internet, I've dealt with the Facebook application for Android for quite some time. Most Android users will immediately have one gripe with this combination of smartphone and software; seemingly faulty push notifications. However, I may have found the solution.

The most popular solution deals with activating the notifications using the Blackberry version of the application. This means you would need to get your hands on a Blackberry. With the service noticeably phasing out from the consumer market, this isn't too easy. To get your hands on a Blackberry without actually having to locate one is as simple as downloading an emulator directly from the Blackberry simulation site. Though when I did this on my own, the newer versions of the simulator weren't available to download for some reason and the other versions that were available didn't include the Facebook application. Now what?

Thankfully, onslaught86 at AndroidNZ has posted a workaround and links to newer versions of the simulator with a step-by-step guide. I went through the steps to install and then log into the Facebook application through the emulator and activated the push notifications in the settings. The next step required me to log into Facebook on a computer and visit the Account Settings for Apps. The next step is to make sure "Facebook for Blackberry Smartphones" is authorized. After several attempts of logging in and out, and clearing the cache on my new phone, the app didn't show in my list (and still hasn't at the time of this posting).

I couldn't believe I did all that work of installing smartphone simulators and dual Facebook log-ins for nothing. Thinking that there might notification settings that needed to be verified within the main version of Facebook, I checked the Notification Settings and at the bottom there was a link for Other Applications. Inside here, the settings for the Blackberry App and the DROID were there. The Blackberry App was checked but the DROID was not. A few hours later after checking DROID and saving the changes, I was getting push notifications on my Android phone!

So in summary:

• On your Android device, open Facebook and go to Settings.
• Uncheck the Notifications menu box.
• Clear the cache for the Facebook App:
• Settings, Applications, Manage Applications, Facebook, Clear Cache.
• In your computer's web browser version of Facebook, go to the top right of the blue menu and click the white triangle.
• Select Account Settings.
• On the left, select Notifications.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Other Applications.
• If DROID is unchecked, check it. If it's checked, try using the Blackberry simulator route.
• Log into the Facebook App and go back recheck the Notifications menu box under Settings.

Since doing all that, I've been receiving all my Facebook notifications as alerts on my smartphone all day. Good luck.