Google will block Nexus S from syncing Facebook contacts

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Kiwi1971

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#77992 25-Feb-2011 09:56

From the register today:

Google opens Android front in Zuckerberg data war

Google has opened up yet another front in its longstanding war with Facebook over who gets to know who your friends are, updating its Nexus S Android phone so that the handset's contacts application no longer dovetails with Mark Zuckerberg's social networking behemoth.

Mountain View is still unhappy with Facebook's refusal to offer API access to user "friends lists". In November, Google cut Facebook's line to Gmail's contacts API and said it wouldn't restore the connection until Facebook introduced a similar API. Facebook, well, hasn't. So, in another effort to loosen Facebook's hold on the so-called "social graph", Google has tweaked the Nexus S contacts app.

Originally, the app let you display contacts stored with Google alongside your Facebook friends data, including friends' phone numbers and email addresses. But it didn't actually transfer the data from the social network - Facebook doesn't, er, offer a contacts API - and this wasn't a setup Google could live with. In an over-the-air update to the Nexus S - the "lead" Android phone, carrying software controlled solely by Google - the company has removed the app's ability to play nicely with Facebook.

Full article here

DLS

Linuxluver

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#443410 25-Feb-2011 14:38

No worries here. I don't sync my Facebook contacts with my phone anyway. My contacts are all in my GMail account.

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Kiwi1971

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#443413 25-Feb-2011 14:42

Linuxluver: No worries here. I don't sync my Facebook contacts with my phone anyway. My contacts are all in my GMail account.

I have added them all to my Gmail account as well but Facebook Merging adds the contact photo to their contact page and keeps it up to date.
Also any new contacts in Facebook would need to be added to gmail manually though wouldn't they?

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Linuxluver

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#443600 26-Feb-2011 10:47

Kiwi1971:
Linuxluver: No worries here. I don't sync my Facebook contacts with my phone anyway. My contacts are all in my GMail account.

I have added them all to my Gmail account as well but Facebook Merging adds the contact photo to their contact page and keeps it up to date.
Also any new contacts in Facebook would need to be added to gmail manually though wouldn't they?

DLS

Probably. :-)

I have about 174 friends on Facebook, but no "contacts". My start and end point for a real contact is GMail.

My FB is full of people I've never met but they "friended" me through a contract I did in Canada in 2007. The rest are family, some kiwis and co-workers...who are usually in my gmail before I add them on Facebook.

I'm still ambivalent about Facebook. If it disappeared in a puff of smoke tomorrow I wouldn't be too worried about it.

But that's just ME! :-)

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Kiwi1971

696 posts

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#443612 26-Feb-2011 11:25

Linuxluver:

Probably. :-)

I have about 174 friends on Facebook, but no "contacts". My start and end point for a real contact is GMail.

My FB is full of people I've never met but they "friended" me through a contract I did in Canada in 2007. The rest are family, some kiwis and co-workers...who are usually in my gmail before I add them on Facebook.

I'm still ambivalent about Facebook. If it disappeared in a puff of smoke tomorrow I wouldn't be too worried about it.

But that's just ME! :-)

It would merge any gmail contacts that are also in facebook into one contact as long as they have the same name and default email address.

Even if Gmail held every contact including Facebook ones, you can assign a label your real friend contacts or Star/Favourite them. Then in your Android phone you go into your display options, choose your Gmail account and tick only the contact labels you want to see in your phone book. And of course you can choose only to see contacts with phone numbers.

DLS