Contacts sync, Push, more for Facebook 3.1

Facebook 3.0 shipped this week, and developer Joe Hewitt – who made a highly-publicised plea for the removal of the entire App Store approval process in the prelude to his app making it onto the store – spent time with ReadWriteWeb to chat about what he has planned next for the Facebook 3.0 App.

Hewitt’s a developer’s developer, his previous work has included the co-creation of the Firefox web browser. He’s named three improvements he hopes to implement in a future release of the software.

The developer confirms true push notifications are scheduled for introduction in v.3.1 of the iPhone and iPod touch-friendly software, saying, “We are working on push. I plan to have it in the next major update, the 3.1. It will be the same kind of notifications you get on the website.”

Hewitt is also working to develop saved, site-wide search features within the Facebook app, though he was unable to promise this would be introduced in 3.1.

Finally, he also wants to synchronise contact lists between your Facebook friends and iPhone contact lists. Apparently what’s in the way are terms of service and privacy restrictions, rather than any technical problems. The way this may work could be that when your friends call you their Facebook avatars pop-up on the iPhone’s screen.