Facebook 2.1 Hands-On With Voice Messaging For Android

Today Facebook's Android iteration has hit version 2.1, bringing with it a variety of features like Voice Messaging and the ability to share in a more wide open way. This upgrade's ability to record and send voice messages is easily the most important upgrade to the Android version of this app in several weeks, with the ability to open and view photos "faster" being lower on the list. You'll be able to download this upgrade to Facebook for free from the Google Play app store right this minute.

For those of you unaware, the messaging portion of Facebook in its app form on both Android and iOS is now more diverse in its newest iterations than ever before. In addition to being able to send voice messages, you're able to type, add emoticons, add a photo from your own gallery, and take a new photo to insert. There's also an Image Search function that uses – you guessed it – Bing!

When you do an Image Search and find a Bing Images result, you're able to simply tap that image and have it planted in your message like a pro. Simple and clean indeed. This is one of several ways in which Facebook is working with Microsoft and their Bing search engine here in 2013, their connections rising up in Graph Search most prevalently this past week. Keep an eye on Bing and Facebook for news about one from the other and vice versa in the very near future.

Be sure to check out our SlashGear 101: What is Facebook Graph Search? to see the future of the social network!

Sharing has been updated in this Facebook 2.1 upgrade for Android allowing you to share your friend's posts (or Stories, as Facebook calls them), to your Timeline, Pages, and Groups galore. Now we've only to wait for the rest of the features that the iOS version of the app has – soon, soon! Anyone hear of Facebook staff members being relegated to Android devices until this version of the app is up to snuff? Keep it classy!