Nexus S Facebook Sync Removed [Google Removing Facebook Sync in Ongoing Nexus S Gingerbread Update]

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What happens when two big companies with a supposed partnership clash against each other? Android users lose out on functionality. Google is reportedly removing Facebook Sync from the upcoming Nexus S Gingerbread update.

Google is currently rolling out Android 2.3 Gingerbread updates to Nexus S owners. If you have a Nexus S and use Facebook heavily, though, you might be losing out on a bit of functionality. Google is apparently removing Facebook Sync from the Nexus S.

This all stems from the rift between Google and Facebook on how users’ contact lists are handled. Google banned Facebook from pulling Gmail contacts (at the behest of certain users’ request). Google wanted Facebook to give users the option to totally remove their Facebook contacts. Now this particular disagreement has extended to Android.

We believe it is very important that users are able to control their data. So in the over-the-air update for Nexus S, we have a small change to how Facebook contacts appear on the device. For Nexus S users who downloaded the Facebook app from Android Market, Facebook contacts will no longer appear to be integrated with the Android Contacts app. Since Facebook contacts cannot be exported from the device, the appearance of integration created a false sense of data portability. Facebook contact data will continue to appear within the Facebook app.

Apparently, users thought that syncing Facebook contacts will store the data alongside the Android contact list. But when you disassociate your device from your Facebook account, or when the Facebook account is uninstalled, the contacts disappear.

With the Gingerbread update, Nexus S users will only be able to manage Facebook contacts from within the Facebook app. Sounds simple enough?

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