Facebook on Friday started rolling out the Find Wi-Fi feature of its main Android app on a global level, with the functionality now being available to all owners of smartphones and tablets running Google’s open source operating system and the latest version of the Facebook app. The platform itself was designed to facilitate the process of discovering public Wi-Fi hotspots, essentially mimicking a service offered by many local administrations and third-party developers. Where Facebook differs from its competitors is in its ability to amass data, boasting more than two billion users on the planet, with many businesses being more than willing to share login information for their Wi-Fi hotspots with the Menlo Park, California-based social media giant. That’s essentially what the Find Wi-Fi feature is – a list of wireless connections shared by its owners.
The very nature of the functionality should help a wide variety of people, from travelers visiting foreign countries to those who are close to hitting their monthly mobile data caps but still don’t want to be too conservative with their Internet usage and Facebook users who simply find themselves in areas with poor cellular coverage. The latter is especially important in developing countries where Facebook has been testing Find Wi-Fi since last year. It’s currently unclear whether the service was changed in a significant manner since its soft launch but the fact remains that it’s now available for everyone to use free of charge. The social media giant didn’t clarify whether the new functionality is being distributed to owners of Android smartphones and tablets through a client-side update over the Google Play Store or a server-side switch, but seeing how the Facebook app itself wasn’t officially updated since Wednesday, the latter scenario is more likely.
After making sure that you’re running the latest stable build of the app, open the “More” tab from its main menu and locate the “Find Wi-Fi” option. Doing so will present you with a map of nearby hotspots that can also be transformed into a list, depending on your preferences. Refer to the gallery and video beneath this writing so see how the new functionality works in practice.
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