Of Facebook's 800 million active users, more than 350 million of them currently access Facebook through mobile devices, according to the company. October saw Facebook's updated Messenger app, labeled 1.5, rolling out to iOS, Android and BlackBerry with updated features, including the ability to see when someone is typing, and verify that they haven't fallen asleep. We also saw Facebook challenging Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) with an iPad app that allows mobile developers to bypass the Apple Store.

What we haven't been hearing so much about are the Facebook alternatives -- third-party apps that provide faster loading and other functionalities that the official apps don't. One such Facebook app is ad-free FriendCaster Pro for Android, also updated in October, and now seeing a jump in downloads compared to the Facebook "official" app.

I decided to give FriendCaster a grilling. I was particularly interested in the media capturing and upload functions that have -- until recently -- been conspicuously poor in official Facebook apps.
App Installation

Loading the FriendCaster app for the first time, I was presented with a slew of warnings about access to my phone's innermost workings, including such terrifying permission requests like "access my data at any time" and "access information people share with me." There were in fact 16 such permissions requests -- the most I'd ever been asked for.

I guess that's the nature of social networks. It felt creepy, but I touched "Allow" and wondered who'd be the first friend to disown me due to enemy-plundered "information people share with me."
The UI

Clicking on "News Feed," I was presented with a close-up picture of a friend's Halloween dinner that looked like it was bought at a bait shop. I won't share it with you, but I'm sure you get the idea. I whizzed through the lively and elegant UI, pressing various buttons that included "News Feed," "Profile," "Friends" and so on.

One massive improvement featured on both apps -- official and FriendCaster -- over the desktop client's home page is a "Friends" button where you touch the button and are presented with a list of "Friends" to choose from. The desktop client, believe it or not, makes you drill down through convoluted options to read a specific friend's wall.
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