Joe Hewitt, Developer of the Facebook iOS App, Leaves Company

POST

MAIL

Posted May 9, 2011 at 12:09pm by iClarified

Joe Hewitt, the creator of the popular Facebook iOS app, has left the company. In his blog, Hewitt notes that he didn't leave the company on bad terms.

Normally when I leave a job I go out cursing the management and wishing I had left much sooner. In the case of Facebook, I sent heartfelt emails to all of my managers thanking them for the privilege of letting me work there, and I genuinely meant it. Facebook was the longest I ever worked at one company, and the best employer I've ever had.

Hewitt is planning to work independently on software tools to help modern developers who are trying to balance mobile, cloud, and HTML5 development.

And so, I'm independent now, and I'm going to pour myself into understanding the needs of modern developers and designers, and creating software to fill those needs. There are so many opportunities that I can't even predict what I will end up building, but I am pretty sure I know where I am going to start. I can't wait.

Read More

Joe Hewitt, Developer of the Facebook iOS App, Leaves Company

Follow iClarified

Latte - May 11, 2011 at 4:36am

I hope u guys realize that he is the reason why Facebook for iPhone looks like how it looks now. B4 he decided to take up the task, it was CRAP!!! I remember when the first FB app came out... never again. Now other teams from the other OS's are basing their design philosophy of his. The reason why updates have been lackluster and functionality has been abysmal is because, over a year ago, he declared that he was abandoning anything iOS because of Apple's control on things. So the FB has been left in the hands of second rate dev trying to keep up with the standard Hewitt introduced. Hewitt creates a VERY useful tools for the industry. Some were introduced in the FB app n now widely used in many apps; subtle to users, but huge to devs. Also, Pull to Refresh? yea...

Reply · Like

Latte - May 11, 2011 at 4:41am

I will say it's a BIG loss, but then again he hasn't been doing anything iOS-wise for a very long time. So I guess it's a good thing he's leaving Facebook to work on more tools to help out devs. The industry def wins here.

Jupiter - May 9, 2011 at 7:04pm

Yeah Facebook sucked... And hopefully they replace him with someone who CAN make an iPad version of the app... I'm still baffled that the Playbook got a tablet version first =S

Rashid - May 9, 2011 at 1:08pm

fintolini - May 9, 2011 at 1:44pm

I agree, Constant bugs, limited functionality, limited updates. Better Facebook apps for iPad out there than the one that facebook produced themselves. Hopefully someone with more ambition will attack it now.

PReaper - May 9, 2011 at 3:41pm

You took the words out of everybody's mouths..!

DigiHead - May 9, 2011 at 5:16pm

I was about to say the same! Hope somebody will do better! I would even pay for it!