Facebook’s new iphone optimized site has been getting much deserved attention since it went public last week, but it has a few glaring omissions, like the inability to add photos. This is in large part due to the fact that the iPhone can’t upload images. However it can e-mail them.
A number of blogs have been linking to a new 3rd party service called PxPipe that lets you e-mail photos and have them posted to Facebook, but they are missing the fact that you don’t need a 3rd party service to do it. You can e-mail your photos directly to photos@facebook.com, or, if you want them to be part of a note, you can e-mail them to notes@facebook.com.
The first time you try, you’ll have to acknowledge an e-mail confirmation that Facebook sends back to you before they are posted. To be honest, I had a little trouble with this, and I’m not sure exactly why it started working. I’m not sure if they changed the service so it would work with e-mail addresses beside the e-mail to SMS gateway addresses most carriers assign mobile phones, or if it was the fact that I dug around in their help and followed the instructions listed under “I sent in some photos, but I never received a confirmation code. What gives?” in the “Mobile Help: Troubleshooting” section. If you give it a try, please leave a comment and let us all know what ultimately worked for you.
For more information, you can see Facebook’s mobile uploads page.
Update 9/8/07: This broke for me a few days ago, and I haven’t been able to get it working again. It’s still working for a friend who followed my instructions though. Very annoying.
Update 10/18/07: I finally got it working again. The trick, I think, was to make sure that the photos were being sent from the same e-mail address Facebook has on file for my Facebook account.
I set it up last week, and it works like a charm. One cool feature is whatever you put in the subject line of the email, becomes the Comments on the Facebook site!