Posters in Facebook's offices pitch Android over iPhone

Facebook is pushing Android, and pushing it hard. The campaign stemmed from an initiative earlier this summer to entice, and sometimes force employees to use the Facebook app on Android in order to make improvements to the Android Facebook app.

We know there is no shortage of strong opinions about iOS vs. Android. Regardless of those arguments, the Facebook app for iOS is outstanding, and by just about any measure a superior execution compared to its Android cousin (and other platforms). Facebook knows this, and it is part of the reason why the iPhone has so much traction with its employees.

Facebook has enhanced its campaign to get employees to make the switch to Android by posting propaganda posters around its Menlo Park, California campus. It calls on employees to ‘droidfood (Andrdoid and dogfood), which means to get employees to use Facebook on Android, test it, live it, and eat it (testing your own programs, hence eating your own dog food).

The push to make a switch will take some time to make a dent, given carrier contracts and the company’s own propensity to offer iPhones in the past. So for now, Facebook is still heavy on the iOS side, and officially the company is not recommending one or the other, but the campaign is taking hold. The whole goal is to get employees testing the next generation Android apps and bring parity with its iOS counterpart.

One of the new features to help evaluate apps that are in beta testing is called “Rage Shake.” It allows employees to just shake the device, it logs the current disposition of the app and device and it sends it to the mobile app developers. Facebook has about 4,000 employee testers, so that test feature streamlines the flow of information coming in which, in turn, will mean big improvements to the Facebook app for Android down the road.

source: TechCrunch