Jason Howell Ron Richards Gina Trapani hey guys, love the show, listen every week on my Moto X vi...

[G+_Don Laboucane]

Jason Howell Ron Richards Gina Trapani hey guys, love the show, listen every week on my Moto X via Pocket Cast (which I learned about on the show) while driving in my car. Here's a question that is like to hear you discuss (even if you don't know the answer). I've been an Android fan since the day the OG Droid came out. So I've lived through every iteration of Android since 2.0 including Honeycomb on my Xoom, which i really loved (the tablet, not so much Honeycomb) . But ever since Ice Cream Sandwich, I believe, either Android stopped supporting contact pictures pulling from Facebook, or Facebook stopped supporting it on Android. What's the deal? It really bugs me to have all these contacts in my phone without profile pictures. Yes, it would be great if they would all just use Google+ but I'm not holding my breath. I know there are work arounds like Haxsync, but honestly, I don't think we should have to do that. I seem to remember that Facebook used to push their employees to get Android phones so they could learn to make a better App. Am I the only person bugged out by this? Oh & sidebar from this week's show, completely disagree with some of the tablet discussions. I use my Moto X, have a Nexus 10 (LOVE IT) & use HP Chromebook 14 as my main computer (especially for work travel). They all have their things they do best at, there is no one device that is prefect for every scenario. Keep up the great work! - Nick ?

[G+_tobby]

Facebook integration was removed around the time the Nexus S was released; http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/google-disables-contact-sync-in-facebook-for-android-only-nexus/

[G+_Joseph Cappellino]

Nick Miller - Facebook dropped the ball here. Google have them everything they need to do it. They just stopped.

[G+_Nick Miller]

Yes but I'd still like to know why it's still this way. The argument Google is giving in that article isn't really valid. For instance, if i use a 3rd party Exchange app like Touchdown, because of security permissions, i cannot edit those contacts in the people app. But if there is a picture associated with that contact in my outlook, it still comes over. It is in essence in my work's cloud.

[G+_tobby]

Here's more background into the situation (three months before sync was removed). http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/05/us-google-facebook-idUSTRE6A455420101105

[G+_Nick Miller]

So to my knowledge, Apple (Mr Privacy) allows it. At the end if the day, it causes a poor user experience. It's similar to how i can't use the Skip Dots. I have to use a PIN unlock due to exchange policies with my work, NFC unlock isn't allowed. But the reason it's not allowed has to do with how Android treats it. IPhone users can use their fingerprint because the iPhone treats that as if it was a PIN or password, so exchange didn't really know is a fingerprint. It just thinks it's a PIN. Why didn't Google do the same thing for NFC? I know that's off topic but it's just part of a larger discussion that (while i love Android) there are some things that Google could do to better the user experience.

[G+_Joseph Cappellino]

The problem was that Facebook was silently stealing and storing everyone's full contact list (i.e. - all entries in your People app from all of your synced accounts).  So, Google blocked them, as there was no way for: A) the user to opt out of this (outside of not syncing their Facebook contacts all together); and B) they didn't provide a universal way for other applications to do the same in reverse (i.e. - I can have all your data, but you can't touch mine).  So, as I said before, the ball is in Facebook's court.  If they were to open up their contacts, this wouldn't be an issue.

 

That being said, there are third-party apps that provide Facebook contact sync.  But, all of the ones I've seen munge/overwrite your existing Google contacts, which is a non-starter for me.

 

Nick Miller, also, NFC unlock is quite different (it's not nearly as secure as a fingerprint scanning), though I understand your point.  Also, NFC unlock is not in stock Android (without using the likes of Tasker/Secure Settings, and even then you have to hack it so NFC stays on while the device is off/locked).  NFC unlock was built in by the OEM who didn't implement it to your liking.  I'm assuming it's the MotoX (I think that's the only one that supports NFC unlock, but I could be mistaken), so your blame should be focused at Motorola.

[G+_Nick Miller]

Thanks for your explanation, hope to still get a discussion going on an AAA episode. I did raise it with Motorola a while back but they seemed to pass it off as an issue with Android.

[G+_Joseph Cappellino]

Nick Miller - Have you actually tried using Tasker and Secure Settings to accomplish what you want?  It might just be possible (though not via NFC without root).

[G+_Nick Miller]

I used to play around with Tasker on my previous phone (with NFC, Galaxy Nexus).  I had it rooted but never tried to do an NFC unlock.  When I got my Moto X, it's actually the 1st phone I've decided to try an not root (for now).  It's worked so well out of the box that I haven't really had a reason to root it.  It's not a make or break issue, it's just one of those things that bug me...and it's really sort of off topic from the Facebook thing.  I was just really citing the issue comparing it to how Apple does things and NFC unlock is probably the closest comparison to fingerprint unlock and different things like that affect the user experience.

[G+_Ankit Balyan]

There are a couple of apps which can help you get facebook pictures for your matching contacts. True caller for instance supports this. Check it out. Dont remember other app names but there are a few. Hope this helps.