Facebook gives insight into lab where it tests updates for apps on phones

Has an update to the Facebook app caused your battery to drain faster? If all goes well, you don’t need to let Facebook know anymore as it now has its own Mobile Device Lab where it tests every update. The social network provides an insight into this laboratory.

Facebook has around sixty server racks at its location in the US state of Oregon, each with 32 smartphones, writes The Verge. Those are smartphones with only Android and iOS. The social network does not test apps for other mobile platforms such as Ubuntu, Windows 10 Mobile and BlackBerry 10, although it does release them in some cases.

Each rack has its own WiFi network, which means that the smartphones must always have an optimal connection. The tests therefore do not reveal anything about the performance of Facebook apps, such as Facebook, but also Messenger and Instagram, on slower connections such as 3G and 2G. The intention is to see whether the updates have a negative impact on the speed and battery life of the devices.

Facebook uses Mac Minis to push the updates to iPhones, while it uses its own OCP Leopard servers based on Linux for its Android devices. The intention is to later expand the project with up to 64 smartphones per rack, in order to be able to test more configurations and models. It is unknown whether the tests in the lab have reduced complaints about Facebook’s apps.