Friendly Social Browser Reviews

FriendlySocialBrowser is a fine substitute if you just want to get Facebook off your phone, but it definitely has its flaws. There's no way to upload photos into people's comment sections. I always have to go to Facebook's mobile site and do it there. There is also no way to upload video from your phone to Facebook, I'm not sure if they'll be able to fix that, but it would be nice. The ads can be a little annoying but it's what you'd expect.
If you are planning on also using this for Instagram, forget about it. Just keep the instagram app because the Friendly version is terrible. While the photo filters do work, the editing tools do not show up at all- it's just a blank empty space where they should be. I've updated FriendlySocialBrowser several times and it's never been fixed, I think they only care about the Facebook portion of it. There is also NO way to receive direct messages from Instagram- I just found out today that people had been messaging me months ago and I never knew about it.
Twitter seems to work fine on here, I haven't noticed any problems, but I also don't use it as much.
FriendlySocialBrowser periodically cleans itself which is good, and while it's nice to have everything in one place, just keep in mind that their main focus is Facebook so if you have other social media you might be better off keeping the original apps for those.

I loved the Friendly App. I’ve used it exclusively since it first came out, way back in 2010 or 2011. I told everyone about it. I tried the official Facebook app many times but I always delete it and returned to Friendly. I liked that the news feed stayed on Most Recent and it was easy to navigate. I like that I can personalize it by color and add other social media accounts. But this most recent update is awful. I used to be able to click a link and it would take me to Safari. Now, it doesn’t take me to Safari- I have to copy the link, exit Friendly, then go to Safari and paste and go. Trying to go back to the news feed after going to someone’s post and thread doesn’t always go back to the news feed, or it takes me so far such as back to the top of the feed. After checking notifications, I get stuck there and can’t get back to the newsfeed. There are just so many things wrong with this and I’m so disappointed. There’s a saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I definitely will not be downloading the official Facebook app, and I’m ready to delete this one. It was a nice run, but your updated look is not better than before.

Once again, you update and it blocks me out of using FriendlySocialBrowser from my other devices. I don’t want to use family sharing. It opens up a whole new can of worms. The more you improve the more it goes wrong. Soon it won’t be worth anything as an app.
Update, sent a beta version on test flight that fixed the problem. My other devices that I used for Facebook account worked just fine. The other just crashed right after you tried to start it. Reinstall did nothing. The beta version started it up right away. The fix came fast and although I have had this problem previously it was fixed as well. Other than that this program is a great program with some bugs. Better than the Facebook app by far.
Next, since everyone one is password crazy, which is fine. I don’t want to have to signed into FriendlySocialBrowser everyday. I sign in for too much already, thank you. Just like having to respond to this. It gets tiring. About ready to can the whole social app concept.
Found it!

So far, I really like having Friendly. Mainly, I they allow me to use the Facebook newsfeed and the messenger all in one app, and it doesn’t take up as much space. It’s been kinda screwy lately, but there was just an update promising to fix a bunch of bugs, so we’ll see how that improves. The only thing I would love to see added is the calling feature. I live somewhere that makes it hard for people to call me on regular phone service, so some people use the messenger or WhatsApp. None of my friends from outside of my area have WhatsApp though, so it makes it a little less helpful. Everyone seems to have FB messenger though, because they’re FORCED to. I have both FriendlySocialBrowser and the original Facebook app on my phone still, because there are a couple of things that I have found hard to do on friendly and I have had to go to the other one to do. But other than those small annoyances, and the lack of a calling feature, I really like FriendlySocialBrowser. Thank you!

Can you please add a “Forward” ❯ button or swiping function? Currently you only have a ❮ back button that appears when browsing. And also only the go backwards swiping works but not the swiping forward.
As you know every browser has both a ❮go backwards function and a ❯ go forward one. If your app already has this ability please let me know how it works.
Thank you so much! - JR

------- My Last REVIEW-------

There's no debating that FriendlySocialBrowser is hands down a lot better option for smartphone users. Instead of handing over most of ones cellphone privacy by using the official Facebook and FB Messenger iOS apps.

I've been using FriendlySocialBrowser for nearly 3 years. And I want to thank the developers who consistently work extremely hard to keep FriendlySocialBrowser at optimal performance.

The only bug that I continue to have for as long as I can remember now is when it comes to clicking on the notification that someone has accepted my friendship. Once I click on this area it doesn't show how these new friendship additions are. But instead it says there no new friendships. However later when I go on from my laptop I see that I truly did have some new friends added.
Can you please address this issue asap? Thank you again!

I couldn’t get FB to work in the official FB app. I could not see notifications and it was driving my crazy. No amount of updating or uninstalling and reinstalling worked. So I looked for other options which lead me to Friendly. So far I am loving FriendlySocialBrowser! I can see ALL my notifications and I’m seeing posts from all my friends not just who FB wants me to see. If I continue to like FriendlySocialBrowser, I’m going to pay the extra to remove the ads. But they don’t really bother me anyway. They are not annoying. I have added Instagram to this but don’t really check it, so I cannot tell you how the other social networks work.

I’ve been using friendly for a couple years and this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write a review. When you click to read an article, it automatically switches to reader view, which cuts off half the article. When you try to switch out of reader view, it will switch back. After going through this 3 or 4 times, I’ve found myself ditching the friendly app and viewing the article in fb on the web. Give me the option to turn off reader view all together. I don’t like it on a good day and this is even more annoying.

Anytime you send a link to someone, whether you are in friendly or not, the next time you go into friendly FriendlySocialBrowser asks if you want to post that on fb. Usually a nuisance, but not obtrusive. Today, the share link option took over the entire screen, and the only way to get rid of it was to close FriendlySocialBrowser and restart.

Overall FriendlySocialBrowser is good, but when bugs happen, boy do they come on strong.

I’ve recently downloaded FriendlySocialBrowser to replace the FB app & I absolutely LOVE this! I was debating about whether or not to delete FB altogether. Does it have ALL the features the full FB app does? No, but I didn’t expect it to. One of the things I love most I got to delete FB & messenger as well since FriendlySocialBrowser includes both. I love that you can customize the background color to make it your own. FriendlySocialBrowser runs smoothly..no glitches so far. There really isn’t anything negative I have to say about FriendlySocialBrowser right now. It has freed up soooo much space in my phone & I find myself spending less time on FB since downloading FriendlySocialBrowser, which was one of my goals. As far as it being a good replacement for FB, IG, etc it really depends on what each persons needs are. Give it a shot, I know I was pleasantly surprised...not disappointed. Great job Friendly...I’ve FINALLY found a solution to all my FB issues. Thank you!!!

I'll preface this with my overall opinion: this is a decent app. When you consider how hard Facebook makes for developers to create anything that gives users more control over their experience, what these developers have accomplished with FriendlySocialBrowser so far is remarkable.

That said, the latest update (8.8) made a change that seriously made me rethink using FriendlySocialBrowser and Facebook altogether.

Perhaps the biggest feature for me is the filters on the feed, where you create a list of keywords that automatically hide or highlight posts. I don't care about highlighting posts, but have been using it to hide the plethora of useless nonsense Facebook forces upon us for years (memories, games, etc) and some subjects I don't want flooding my feed.

Then on 8.8 the devs moved the filters to a different section of the settings and my guess is that internally the filters section changed its name.

Result?

Dozens of filters created over years of using FriendlySocialBrowser (yes, I have the paid version) wiped out. Apparently either I submit to seeing all of that stuff I filtered out over years, or manually add everything again.....

The worst part is how tedious the filtering works on FriendlySocialBrowser. You need navigate to the settings, scroll to the hide by keyword option, enter the keyword, save. If at least there was an easier way to add a filter from a post you don't want to see.. But there isn't.

When I first downloaded FriendlySocialBrowser for my FB, it worked good, but then it logged me out and wouldn’t let me log back in. I did the paid version, and made sure everything was up to date on my phone, and with FriendlySocialBrowser. I ended up having to uninstall it, then pay for it a SECOND time. Today, my entire news feed disappeared. I submitted a ticket, but haven’t heard back yet. I’m almost certain FriendlySocialBrowser has a lot of issues now, and they want you to keep paying them to have it. I had it about a week the first time, and now the same this time around. It worked mostly fine when it worked except it was super slow at times, and it had a hard time being able to share anything or open up certain links from other pages. While I think FriendlySocialBrowser could’ve been good, it’s obviously not a good long term option if you have to keep deleting it, paying for it each time, then reinstalling it.

Edited to reflect new update as of April 1st: The new update looks great. However, the same inconsistency exists with the “back” button and the backward arrow. I wish that it would be consistent.

It’s better than using the regular Facebook app. I almost don’t want the UI to improve because it would make it more “fun” to use, and I don’t want to be on Facebook more than I need too. However, there is confusion with the backwards arrow and the actual back button. If I’m searching posts in a sale group, click on a post, then press the back arrow, I might go back to my notifications or my feed or whatever. I think it would be better to have the back button (which would take me back to the sale group) stay on screen when viewing a post. Or at least make it only appear when you scroll up. Currently it’s only at the very top of the post.

I had Friendly a while back and it was still in its early days. I deleted it and after downloading the original Facebook app, I was tired of seeing like every 4th post being an ad. So I just started reporting ads but I grew tired of doing that very quickly. I remembered about Friendly and saw the other review and so I quickly downloaded and logged in to my Facebook and I kid you not Facebook is actually likeable again without all the ads. Plus, I added my LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, etc to do the same. FriendlySocialBrowser is pretty legit and worth paying for. My Reddit fails to load however. I am able to login but once I login my feed won’t come up. Any reason why that is? Other than that FriendlySocialBrowser is solid!

Still glitches BUT. FriendlySocialBrowser gets around the Facebook algorithm so that you can ACTUALLY see posts in your feed in real time instead of recycling the 20 same friends. Then there is the Twitter reposting where you should use Friendly to repost those as well. Also this isn’t saturated w/ ads! Highly recommend this as an additional tool for Facebook. The only real reason to use Facebook is for uploading pics, vids & status. But you need to keep under the allowed characters to use Facebooks ignorant color background to get way more views. I If not. Not many ppl will even see it. It’s worth as an add on. And plz come back & leave a comment of the specific person glitches when you review this. Hope to read others soon.

The good: I can read and send messages without installing Messenger, and FriendlySocialBrowser seems to update better/more frequently than the official Facebook app does.

The bad: Quite frequently, it will shut off in the middle/end of my typing a post (and obviously, all the typing is lost). Not only that, but from time to time, I'll type a post, hit "post", and it'll disappear.

By far the biggest issue I've had, though, is that if I don't close out of FriendlySocialBrowser before locking my phone, it turns my phone off, and it can be hours before it will turn on again. Full battery doesn't matter; plugging it in doesn't help. I'm using an iPhone 5s; not a single other app has ever done this, but Friendly does it at least half the time I forget to exit FriendlySocialBrowser before locking my phone.

I’ve been using Friendly for several years, because of how easy it is to manage multiple accounts. But this latest update is frustrating me.

I get to the ‘end’ of Facebook, where it says there are no more posts to show right now. That’s impossible. Facebook has been around for over a decade, and I have any friends and am in a lot of active groups. There is no possibility that I could even scroll through all the activity for one day if I access FB from my desktop - especially with all that’s .

I’ve tried chronological view and top stories and that happens with both. There have been various issues and glitches over the years, but this makes it nearly unusable.

I’ll preface this by saying that I only use Friendly’s Facebook features, so I’m not knowledgeable on how the Instagram or Twitter features work. In my opinion, Friendly is way better than the official Facebook app, especially if you prefer your timeline to show “most recent” instead of “top stories.” Most of the same functionality is there, with the addition of awesome features such as night mode and ad removal. The only reason I didn’t give five stars is that it seems like it doesn’t background refresh even though I have it set to do so. I don’t get any notifications until I open FriendlySocialBrowser to check. So far, that one minor annoyance can be overlooked because of all the positive things FriendlySocialBrowser offers.

I’ve been using friendly for years since Facebook forced Messenger down everyone’s throats. I like using the Friendly app to read my messages on Facebook without having to use Messenger. For some reason, this doesn’t work to message a new person anymore, but it’s great for talking to people I’m already connected with. I would give FriendlySocialBrowser five stars, but there are some things that work better with the actual Facebook app, so I have to use both.
One thing I will say is that I had a problem with FriendlySocialBrowser a few days ago, and the developer emailed me when it was fixed this morning. I have never had that happen with any app. Pretty cool.

It’s great to have my go to social apps in one location. If this were an older gen iPhone it would be perfect. It customizable for the most part . Ad blocker works great unless you click on a link that takes you outside FriendlySocialBrowser . Passcode lock so people can’t view you stuff if you hand someone your phone. All in all a great little app but does not fit the iPhone X screen you know the unibrow which I have grown accustomed to. So I hope it is updated soon. To the Dev : You have done a great job and I have bought the paid version to support your efforts. For now though I am going to stick with the main apps and come back in a bit and hope for an update. Looking forward to progress.

I don’t understand why when I look someone up and friend request them, if I try to send them a message it takes me to the built in messenger but doesn’t open a new message. It opens up the last message I sent to someone. So if I don’t watch I’ll be sending a message to the wrong person. This is a serious problem. It should open a new message to the person in sent the request to she intended to send a new message to. Not the same person I sent my last message to that has nothing to do with the new message I intended to send. I’ve tried every option in FriendlySocialBrowser and still get this. I’ll have to look for another app if this isn’t corrected.

Friendly is a quick way to access multiple FB accounts. Although it is quick, there are a few frustrating issues I encounter, despite updates. The most recent is the voice-to-text feature. On my iPhone 10max, every app except Friendly work fine when using voice-to-text. On Friendly, despire my rate of delivery, I can only get 3-4 words out before it stops. Weird. This has been the same symptom on current upgrade, as well as past past two upgrades. Hoping they figure out the bug and patch it.
It’s the most irratitng issue, presently. Anotger is tge canera doesn’t work when trying to send a pic directly. Once the pic is taking in the Camera app, friendly uploads fine. I wish they’d delete this non-working feature, if they can’t resolve it.
Thanks, Jim

I love that this is a much smaller app than the native Facebook one and allows me to not have to have two or three separate apps because Messenger is bundled in with it. I love not being spied on and having ads that are exactly what I talked about less than a day later. I just really like not having ads.

But here's my problems: 1) Videos aren't loading on Facebook at all. Just a "play" icon on top of a picture. 2) If you follow a link to a website, any links on that website that you click on will not go anywhere. 3) Messenger chats update kinda weird or not at all. It still mostly works, so it's not going to make me download the Messenger app again, but it's buggy and I wouldn't rely on it for critical info.

FriendlySocialBrowser doesn’t entirely work like it should. I only use it for Facebook. First of all messages do not get marked as read a lot of times and you’ll get notifications on messages you send out. The bottom tabs flips back through pages of the previous tab instead of go to the tab instantly like it should. It hangs a lot when opening. The market place won’t go right back to the search after clicking on an item to view instead it goes back to the beginning. If i get a photo message I can’t download it. It shows download but all it does is expand and won’t download. I cannot delete individual messages right from the message. Another thing is when messages get sent it doesn’t really send and when you reload the message it is gone. I have sent messages with forwards and the forward sent but the message doesn’t. They should just rename FriendlySocialBrowser to unfriendly.

A very good alternative to Facebook hindered by a couple UI flaws. A way to open a link (Facebook or external) in safari would be nice because the built in browser is really bad. Galleries with more than 3 images won't let you scroll through all of the images for some reason, and being able to open those in safari would alleviate that problem (or just fixing the problem in FriendlySocialBrowser , too).

Another issue is page position when you go "back". Sometimes, after opening a story, if our go back to the main feed, you'll lose your position on the feed, or it'll reload, potentially losing the story forever.

These two flaws hold FriendlySocialBrowser back for me. I bought premium too, for what that's worth.

If the only pro was being able to send and receive messages without using the invasive Messenger app, I would give this 5 stars. It also takes up MUCH less space on my device than the actual Facebook app. You can also change the color of your interface, which is fun. You can also switch easily between the website version and mobile version of Facebook, which is usually a hassle.

The only thing is you can’t make live videos. But just about everything else works great.