One of the big selling points of Windows Phone 7 that was touted by Microsoft and Joe Belfiore when it was launched was that all of your personal content could be placed right there on the start screen. It wasn’t just a launcher for apps, it was all of your stuff… all of your friends, your pictures, your music… all the real stuff you wanted right there on the start screen in whatever arrangement you wanted. That was a pretty great idea.
Unfortunately, things have changed recently. Microsoft isn’t really allowing us as much access to our content as before. You can no longer pin OneNote notebooks or sections to your start screen (only single pages), and now Microsoft is actually removing access to some of your Facebook photo albums both within the official Facebook app as well as the integrated section within the Photos app on Windows Phone 8.1. Now it only shows the newest 50 or so albums.
Even though it all worked quite well before recent Facebook app updates were pushed to our phones, Microsoft’s Windows Phone support twitter account has confirmed that this is “by design”. I lived with it for a few weeks thinking that it was a bug in the beta version of the Facebook app I had been using, but then I noticed it happened on the official Facebook app I had installed on a different phone too.
Since the Windows Phone Support twitter account was completely unhelpful after sending me to a Windows Phone User Voice forum page, I contacted the Windows Phone PR team to see if they could shed any more light as to why such an important feature would be removed. That was a week ago, and I’m not holding my breath for a reply. Of course, I did post the request to bring back basic Facebook functionality to the User Voice forum, but who in their right mind would think that removing access to my photo albums was a good idea?
@WinPhoneSupport @adamzea here’s a good feature change request… STOP REMOVING FEATURES!
— Jesse Jewkes (@turbojewk) November 25, 2014
I used to be able to instantly bring up some photos from a year or two ago on my phone whenever the need arose. It was especially handy when I met someone and she’d say, “Actually we met before at the so and so party.” Then I could bring up the pictures on Facebook and say, “Oh yeah, there you are!” Now that Microsoft is crippling the Facebook app, I now have to use the Facebook website instead … or start carrying an Android phone or iPhone in addition to my Lumia 1020.
Why would such an important aspect of the Facebook app be removed like that? Please stop trimming features we need, Microsoft! Or at least learn how to communicate with your fans and customers as to why you’re removing features we love.
Originally published on Pocketnow on December 4, 2014. More from the Pocketnow archive.