Reliance’s JioPhone Finally Gets Facebook, No Sign of WhatsApp Yet

The popular 4G feature phone runs on Kai OS and Facebook has designed the app to work on this platform.

Facebook has been customised to work on Kai OS for the device. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Facebook will be available on JioPhone from Wednesday, 14 February onwards, as confirmed by Reliance Jio in a statement. The telco added that the app can be downloaded from the Jio App store by all existing and new JioPhone users.

The new Facebook app for JioPhone supports push notifications, video, and links to external content. The app is also optimised to successfully accommodate the cursor function on JioPhone, which is running on Kai OS platform, one of the few devices to support this operating system.

This new version of the Facebook app is built specially for Jio KaiOS, a web based operating system designed for JioPhone. This will open up Facebook for potential 50 crore feature phone users in India, as highlighted in the statement.

This is another feather in the cap for Reliance Jio, which has also managed to get Google to integrate its voice-assistant, Google Assistant with the JioPhone. Gummi Hafsteinsson, Google's product management director, global, had asserted that for the first time Google Assistant is supporting any feature phone.

Also Read: Google Taps Into Reliance JioPhone for Google Assistant, but Why?

This is also a big opportunity for Facebook, to add more users to its platform, something that has become rather challenging for the company over the past 8 to 10 months.

We are excited about our partnership with Jio and the opportunity to provide the best possible Facebook experience for millions of people using JioPhone.

Francisco Varela, Vice President of Mobile Partnerships, Facebook

While Facebook has made its way to the 4G VoLTE feature phone, there is still no word on whether the social networking giant will push WhatsApp towards the phone as well. Even without the social messaging app, JioPhone has managed to scale up the charts in recent times, to become the leading brand in the Indian feature phone market.

Also Read: How JioPhone 4G Rebooted India’s Feature Phone Market

This development comes at a time when reports have emerged, which suggest Reliance Jio could shelve this feature phone for an affordable Android smartphone.