Is Facebook testing out new phone app?

Remember the Facebook phone?

You may have heard the scuttlebutt regarding the development of a Facebook phone, those details have been neither confirmed nor fully denied by the social media giant. Last year, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was in South Korea meeting with Samsung Electronics, allegedly discussing the prospects of a Facebook phone.

Nothing more has been said about this project, however, there may be something new in development along the same lines: Facebook appears to be developing a phone application.

Android Police reported that an app called “Phone” was uncovered by several Facebook users. The app’s entry was labeled “FB-ONLY,” as if it were solely intended for use by employees of the social network. Those users who attempted to install it were unsuccessful with most encountering “no page found” errors. Android Police speculated this was due to the app being stored on Facebook’s internal servers.

Okay, maybe it’s actually a cool idea

The main purpose of the app is quite intriguing: it seems to be enabling users to see more information about callers before answering, as well as giving them the ability to block numbers. Additionally, VentureBeat has speculated that the app could be an auto-dialer, enabling users to access the phone numbers associated with their Facebook friends’ profiles.

This could be a dream for marketing gurus, as most users have a least one phone number on their Facebook profiles. On the flip side, security-conscious users may want to review their Facebook privacy setting and ensure that their phone numbers are set to “only friends,” or “only me” to help prevent this data from being aggregated by Facebook. VentureBeat also reported that some Facebook users (who are not employees of Facebook) were prompted to install the app. Very interesting indeed.

Facebook has made no comments regarding the issue. It remains to be seen whether this is just an internal testing system, or another step in using the information Facebook user’s provide to expand their services.

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