Microsoft Releases a Cross-Platform Silverlight Client for Facebook

It’s Here

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the availability of a Facebook client written on the Silverlight 4 beta bits and its Facebook Developer Toolkit. This is the client that Scott Guthrie demonstrated during the PDC09 keynote. The client requires installation of the Silverlight 4 developer runtime and is available on Windows and Mac systems.

A Richer Facebook Experience

Here’s a shot of the the application running on Windows 7. It looks familiar but polished.

The layout of the application is similar to Facebook’s own web layout. There are filters for your news feed on the left pane, and along the top are navigation controls to get to your photos, inbox, etc. On the right side is a collection of thumbnails of recent photos from all your friends. Navigating the application is very smooth and will feel natural for Facebook users.

This is a shot of the photo view.

The source code has been not been released for this application, but developers are hopeful it will be made available on CodePlex in the near future.

So, go download the client and give it a try. We would love to hear your opinion in the comments!

Related Resources & Downloads

• Install the Silverlight Facebook Client: http://www.silverlight.net/content/samples/apps/facebookclient/sfcquickinstall.aspx
• Silverlight Team’s Announcement: http://team.silverlight.net/product-technology-deep-dive/be-one-of-the-first-to-get-the-microsoft-silverlight-4-beta-client-for-facebook/
• Tim Heuer’s Announcement and Walkthrough: http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2010/01/25/silverlight-client-for-facebook-from-pdc-available.aspx
• Microsoft’s Facebook Developer Toolkit: http://www.codeplex.com/FacebookToolkit
• Additional Silverlight Resources: http://silverlight.net/