yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Alright... I think I'm reasonably happy with the latest set of patches, which means... here's v12.3:

facebook-lc-v12.3.apk

This is quite similar to 12.2, with the following changes:

* Hide "People You May Know"

* Hide some marketplace-related ads that fell through the cracks

* Hide the email sign-up upsell box that appears at the top (but not necessarily at the bottom) of instant articles.

As mentioned earlier, one other thing that I've tried to hide since 12.x is the "Up Next" countdown bar that appears near the end of some videos (especially "episodes" of stuff). I haven't seen it in a while, so hopefully that's gone.

It would also be nice to nuke some of the junk at the end of Instant Articles, but this will be fairly obnoxious until some apktool issues are resolved. So, I'll probably hold off on this for now (and since it occurs at the end of useful content, I'm not super concerned with it right now). One other thing that's somewhat on my radar is the "Follow" toast-style popup box that slides in from the bottom of the screen after you finish watching a video from the main news feed, but I need a way to reproduce this consistently and reliably, in order to try to get rid of it. Is facebook is trying to promote "shows" or become the next video streaming platform? /shrug. I guess it seems interesting that they'd promote "groups" of episodes, given how we tend to consume content in "an a-la-carte" manner, based on sharing / interest / popularity of individual episodes, rather than following a "facebook show" as a whole. Is that model meant to attract content creators? I'm almost seeing a parallel to how we've grown to cherry-pick the most interesting articles across multiple online news sources, rather than subscribing to a single physical publication and reading all the articles within that publication. But it's late, it's been a long day, and I digress.

Anyway... the sun's coming up, and it's time to go crash. As always- enjoy, good luck, and have fun :)

-evilwombat

Ps. Maybe if I get some free time, I can pull the "latest" latest FB release, and see what all that "superuser access request" brouhaha is all about. Is FB trying to detect rooted devices for adblocker punishment, or are they simply trying to collect yet another metric for more fine-grained targeting? Or a bit of both? I guess time will tell...
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
Not in good way. Almost every video i see on FB is Rip-Off of YT or Instagram with Facebook ads. And for some reason i they keep sending me BS recommendation in occasional notification "there is video recommendation for you" which has literately nothing related with videos or content i read !! Don't know what kind of Machine Learning they are using for sending out such BS.

WTH ?! This is next level nuts :eek: Since when this crap started lurking around ?
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
When you say sign both apps manually do you mean rename the packages? That is actually what I did. I gave Messenger v161 provided by OP a new package name and installed. I also renamed the package of v12.1 FB LC. However, it is still acting as different entities. Is there a specific naming convention that I need to use when I rename packages so that they act as "one entity"? Otherwise, what else do I need to do besides rename the package to sign manually?
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
No !!

Package name has nothing to do with it. You can even chnage it to "Google Plus" and it won't make a difference.

Read 2nd post below OP by Me about signing. It's also linked in my signature.
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Agreed. I don't see those, but I suspect that's because I opted out of them. You can click an icon on the right side of the notification, or maybe long-press it (while within the facebook notifications view) and you'll get a menu to hide all notifications of that type. It doesn't work for all notification types, but you can hide them for at least video "recommendations".

I know, right? See: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...eruser-privileges-and-users-are-freaking-out/

Sounds like it could be a bug, though the bug is probably in HOW root is detected / presented (?). Can't imagine the entire presence of superuser access is a bug in and of itself...

EDIT: It's possible the superuser stuff might at least be related to the payment mechanism built into the FB app, which kind of makes sense. I wonder if that's ALL it's there for, though...
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
Sadly for me there's no option to "hide all these type of video notifications". All i get is hide this notification on long press :rolleyes:

But payment is actually linked with Messenger, No ? But it seems good reason, i just hope they don't start forcing like Messenger -_- otherwise i won't have any option but say good buy to FB for good :p

PS : One more reason to use FB-LC...LOL facebook-stories-getting-video-ads/
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Yeah, saw that today. Seems icky :(

Do you have a ". . ." menu in your notifications bar? Open FB, click the notifications tab, and you should see a bunch of ". . ." icons to the right of each notification. This should allow you to hide individual types (like birthdays, friend recommendations, video, etc). Long-pressing only seems to let me hide individual instances, but the ". . ." menu seems a little more promising.
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
Okay I resigned the apks (both with "testkey") and did Zipalign and still getting prompted to install messenger when I click the messenger icon within FB LC. If you're saying renaming the packages has nothing to do with it then I don't know what the problem could be.

Also, one thing worth mentioning to novices like myself is that zipalign output file should be created through a PC. When I tried clicking the BAT file on my phone it said there was no associated app to open the file.

https://xdaforums.com/android/software/batch-apk-zipalign-tool-t3791644
[Android Apps and Games] docteurcrook:
as usual, a good job. everything work fine!
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
There must be something that you are not donibg properly bcz even i'm using same setup without any issue.

Try uninstalling all FB apps and install FB-LC & Messenger that you just signed.

You are not using very old version of messenger or any moded version (like dark) or something right ? bcz it may cause the issue you are facing. if that's the case use latest messenger from apk mirror and sign it.
[Android Apps and Games] icodix:
gonna try it.
[Android Apps and Games] amrtalaat:
Hey.. i have 2 questions. Is it save more battery ?.. and where i can find messeges. Can i still with original messenger ?
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
You are refereeing to FB website right ? Bcz i don't have any ... menu in FB App, though i didn't know about extra options on FB web's ... so thanks, i'll give it a try next time i receive Video "recommendation"

Also, I'm using 12.3 for a day. All things working normally. Instagram embedded, one we talked about, is also working properly again

:)

1. NO

2. YES, You need separate Messenger as well (if you are heavy messenger user..other wise you can try http://mbasic.facebook.com/messages in browser/chrome when you get notification to see/reply as, i do. ;)

this mod is not about saving resources per say (because it's a losing game), it's for removing ads and other FB crap :good:
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
Oh wow, You have entirely different UI than do !

I still have ancient 4 tab UI with NO ... menu and i guess this is not the only thing I'm missing :( there might be some new features that never appeared for me :confused: LOL..I wish there's a way to jump to this UI design , If i'm correct this design change started 2 years back (experimentally) but i never accurately made part of it apart from getting it for brief 2-3 days on beta app.

About FAQs, while it's a good idea, do you really think people on XDA actually reads OP/FAQs ? :silly:

They are not, because all the stuff you explained in already there in OP installation part in brief.

So if someone new would have try to understand it, we would have surely come across some questions on it, like you just answered, but guess what, over the year we never actually got a question on WHY ? It was always about HOW ?

Still, i can wrap around they in hidden tag with, Question like WHY we are signing ?

I'm suggesting Hidden tag because reading size of OP & FAQ has already reached, what i like to call, "Reading Threshold Size", the limit above which people scroll & skip seeing the size of content.

In fact, i think you should also wrap Terminology & List of mods write up inside hidden tag as "List of Mod" to make OP more appealing to read. Because gist of mod is already given in "Intro" and i don't think people actually interested in knowing every single change ;)

Finally, putting "Read FAQs" with 2nd post's link, in OP's Installation part to draw people's attention to FAQs would be good idea, before they decide to just go ahead with installing APK in "THE STUFF" & If possible remove duplicate stuff from OP that are covered in FAQs.

Edit : See the changes I made in FAQs, I hope they are satisfactory.
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
No, I am not using an old version. This is the process in the order I did it:

1)	Disabled stock Facebook on my Galaxy s9+ and uninstalled stock Messenger

2)	Downloaded FB LC v12.1 and Messenger v161 from OP

3)	Rename the packages for FB LC and Messenger v161 to avoid issues associated with stock Facebook installed as system app. I modified the APK names slightly from the original package names.

4)	I re-signed the two apps using zip signer with “testkey” for both APKs (see screenshot below)

5)	Zipaligned both Messenger and FB LC APKs

6)	Installed both APKs from step 5

See screenshot with “signed.apk” in the file names. If you look at the file path in the screenshot it is in the folder “Resigned FB APK Output”. I took the “Output” zip align folder from my PC, renamed it and moved it onto my phone to ensure that I was installing the correct APK versions. Based on these steps do you see anything I'm doing wrong?
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
I think "renaming" Messenger is causing the issue you are facing, bcz FB search for original name for linking.

Rename FB-LC only, since you were able to "uninstall" stock messenger you don't need to rename it. Keep original name with "test-key" signed.

Give it a go...it should work.
[Android Apps and Games] pogi.paul0119:
Works great .. fb without bul******.. hahaha .. if you are having issue installing, use apk editor pro to rename the the app and disable the installed fb app (disable if you cannot uninstall).. .
[Android Apps and Games] fjoel:
Installed v12.3, working good so far. Thank You!!

Can you make a similar de-bullshified version of Intagram? , instagram shows ads almost identical that fb.
[Android Apps and Games] Flounderist:
[MENTION=5029215]evilwombat[/MENTION] +1
[Android Apps and Games] hs420:
Use GBinsta. A quick Google search and you'll find it. No ads and tons of options to customise. Plus you can download pics
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
After spending the last hour trying to do this it didn't work but at least I got fb LC and messenger installed back on my phone thankfully. I keep running into different complications every time. This time zipalign wasn't creating files in my output folder. Any idea why this is the case?

I will have to try this again when time allows.
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
There might be blank space in apk name.

also if you are using zipsigner android app for signing, you don't need to ziplaign again becuse that app take of of both sign&align but takes hel lot of time that's why i prefer PC tools which i listed in FAQs
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
The only PC I have is a work PC so I cannot install 3rd party programs on it. Zipsigner is not taking me very long though.

One other question. APKeditor Pro has option to sign with "testkey". Why is that not sufficient to sign the apps?

Edit: Just an update. Messenger will install ONLY if change the name of the package. I have tried downloading v161, resigning and installing it doesn't work. I've also tried installing without resigning and it does not work. I see the attached message in either scenario. The only scenario where I'm successful is when I re-name the package before I install.
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
Okay another Update. I used an APK that I re-named and signed which was confirmed to install successfully. I then renamed the package back to the original package name and installed it successfully. I noticed some stability when I tried clicking on messenger from FB LC. My phone suddenly re-started a couple of times. It hasn't done it since but when I try clicking Messenger icon in FB LC it does nothing. It just continues to show a notification badge with unread messages. I guess that is better then directing me to a new screen and prompting me to install.

Update: I had to uninstall because apparently what I did above caused wayy too many stability issues. So basically the only way for me to have a stable version of Messenger is to rename the package. The downside is that it will not be streamlined with FB LC. I will be prompted to install every time I click on Messenger via FB LC. If anyone has Galaxy s9 with stock Facebook as a system app and you are able to find a way around all this non sense please let me know.
[Android Apps and Games] hs420:
I'm not sure why so many people are having issues. Maybe zipaligning? Changing apk name? I have a Tmo S9+ and this is how I installed this stuff.

Went to system/app and disabled stock Facebook app (Did this a few versions ago however). For this go I just uninstalled the previous version of FBLC and Messenger. Then I downloaded 12.3 and latest messenger lite from apkmirror. Then went to the play store and grabbed zipsigner and created a custom key and signed both files with it. Then installed. Everything works, took me all of 10 minutes. Been rock solid since OP released it. Same process with wife's phone.

Maybe this helps someone. Or I did it wrong and just lucked out lol
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
I know for a fact that stock Facebook is not a system app on T-mobile Galaxy s9 unlike AT&T Galaxy s9. That is where the complications begin..at least for me.
[Android Apps and Games] vasilis_:
I downloaded Messenger 161 -resigned apk and Facebook lc-v 12,3 apk.

Facebook app works but Messenger keeps stopping .

I delete previous versions from my device.Do I need to sign messenger to make it work?
[Android Apps and Games] pratik_193:
[MENTION=5029215]evilwombat[/MENTION] - most of the stuff is gone, however, i see ads in middle of fb videos.. can anything be done about this?
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Cool, glad the (static) things are working. There are no mods in place to hide and ads in videos. Although I've heard these mentioned once or twice, I have never seen one myself. And without being able to reproduce the behavior, I am not quite sure how to go about patching it.

In suppose one possible reason for this is that I'm running a rooted device with Adfree for Android installed, which works by blacklisting certain ad-related servers via hosts.conf. I'm not sure if this would affect the CDN(s) that Facebook is using, but I guess that's possible.

What kind of ads are you seeing, and in what kind of videos? Are they appearing in things that your friends share, or in live streams, or in random videos posted by random pages? Do you have an example you could link to? I'm not sure I have the time to dig into this super deep, but if I can reproduce it, I could take a look maybe...
[Android Apps and Games] pratik_193:
These are ads in the videos shared by friends and some random video posted. i can share they type and link to the video the next time i get it..

Thanks in advance bro.
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
Even if you share the video link OP won't be able to see ads in that video, because FB ads are server-side and for targeted audience as of now.

I also didn't have any video ads till last week but suddenly 2 days back i started seeing ads on even PC website with ad blocker so i guess ads are rolling out to more public as we speak. HELL with FB :(

---------- Post added at 02:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 PM ----------

why don't you just turn off the chat in FB-LC and don't click on Messenger icon on top right ?

You already have messenger installed so you'll keep getting notification and turning off chat in FB-LC will solve your duplicate notification issue as well.

to turn off chat in FB-LC.

go to side bar..scroll down till you get "app settings"..open it and untick Facebook chat (last option)
[Android Apps and Games] pratik_193:
Deleted
[Android Apps and Games] fjoel:
Thanks, already using GBinsta a few months, but show too many ads, this mod not block any ads. Also, already asked in their forum to block ads, many users agreed with me, we need block ads.

Block ads its the main reason i using this mod of FB.
[Android Apps and Games] murali3127:
Sorry unable to login please check your internet connection.. Facing this issue in all versions
[Android Apps and Games] JRJ442:
Check whatever you're using for an adblock
[Android Apps and Games] murali3127:
Just disabled adblocker now its working. Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] kgr:
[MENTION=5029215]evilwombat[/MENTION] is there any chance of blacking this app out? The white burns my eyes lol
[Android Apps and Games] Loknic4:
Why you people got always some request? Black, white, with blue line, without some Waterloo's on bottom, with mutant cat.....? Common wtf? Really? This is Facebook with less crap and sheets. That alls.
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
I agree with you here. However, an amazing feature that would really help limit the "crap" would be the ability to filter out newsfeed posts by friends that match certain keywords (e.g. "Trump", "Rodan & Fields", and any other junk that is annoying to see).

Devs, is this technically possible to implement?
[Android Apps and Games] Bearthquake:
While I will agree that yes it is a good feature, this is literally the Facebook app without all the annoying extra stuff. Suddenly when adding post filtering its a completely different project.

Also, there are apps out there that can do this, may want to try those.
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
Nothing will ever be added to Facebook in FB-LC....EVER.

It's removal project not the addition.

Period.

Peace :)
[Android Apps and Games] alexcapone:
No that doesn't work which is why I had to use Autonotification as a workaround.

See attached screenshots showing duplicate notifications and second screenshot showing Facebook Chat is toggled off...doesn't make a difference if it's toggled on or off.View attachment 4507487
[Android Apps and Games] DomSim:
Can the whole bottom bar of garbage be removed from messenger? So it is just a chat client? Facebook app is a million times better (thanks!) but messenger doesn't seem to have changed much (any?) from play store and your version.
[Android Apps and Games] hs420:
Yeah, maybe my adblocker blocks most of it. Still see a buttload of sponsored pics though if that's what you mean. Would love to block those too
[Android Apps and Games] vasilis_:
Messenger is not working and keeps stopping .Any one knows why could this happening?
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Sorry, I'm afraid this will be "harder" than it used to be. Usually, such changes are made via resource hacking, which FB made more difficult through an additional layer of obfuscation. This is also why some of the junk at the end of Instant Articles isn't hidden - these used to be handled via resource mods, and it's just not worth the effort to convert them to code mods.

That having been said, I haven't taken any steps that would prevent themeing, or make it more difficult. So, if there's already someone out there capable of doing this stuff, they are welcome to use my APK as a starting point, and nothing I've done should make this any different than starting with a stock application.
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Hello. The Messenger app is the same as the Play Store version, only with its signature changed to be compatible with the modded FB app. Although I did some lightweight Messenger modding in the past, it's grown too big and too annoying to maintain two large mod-able apps at once (especially with all the work stuff that happened, time is limited).

That, and the Messenger stuff doesn't bother me for some reason. Maybe it's because I use Messenger in a very utilitarian way (open it when needing to contact someone) rather than "casual browsing" as I do with facebook. /shrug. That having been said... the bottom bar does seem kind of annoying. Frankly, I don't understand why there's a "Games" tab or what that has to do with Messenger. Are they games you can play with your friends? Or is it FB trying to expand their reach? Maybe a bit of both? /shrug
[Android Apps and Games] jineshpatel30:
That's totally out of order ! Might be some bug on base version of FB.

Anyway it seems we are out of options so i guess you have to live with this till atleast next update come. You can keep ittirating things we have gone through in mean time and see if you have any luck on 2nd attempt.
[Android Apps and Games] evilwombat:
Hmmm. This has crossed my mind a few times, but it would be rather complicated. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how to go about this. It would require injecting arbitrary code into the application, rather than making "spot" changes like I do today. Due to the way that FB is structured (due to its sheer size), arbitrary code injection is difficult. And, due to the way DEX files are structured, injecting a block of code and "splicing" it into existing code is a bit more involved than patching in a branch-and-link instruction. (I suddenly miss ARM :) ). But basically, we'd need to find a way to (a) build arbitrary Java code into DEX bytecode (ready for injection) while preserving "bindings" (?) to the FB data structures that we want to touch, (b) inject our new class into one of FB's DEX files, without upsetting anything else (which could get "interesting" given how things are structured), (c) identify a place in the FB code where we'd want to splice in our filter (I have a few ideas for this, but it's only a guess), (d) inject a function call from the target point into our class (which is where things get tricky, because DEX), and (e) write some logic to decide if we want to filter something out or not (the tricky part here is parsing the internal data structure to see what's what, but once this is done, the actual filtering is easy). Then there's the matter of actually managing / administering the filter list, but this could be done with a standalone application.

But as you can see.... this would be taking things to the next level, and the risk of FC would go up rather substantially. Maybe if I have some free time, I could take a look, but I'm afraid this is more of a back-burner thing for now :(

If you're seeing a bunch of annoying posts from friends, my recommendation would be to click through to the Page that authored the post, and clicking Block / Hide All (or just blocking all items from that page directly from the "Hide Post" menu). I realize this might feel like putting your hand in front of a firehose, but I've found the amount of annoying posts goes down quickly after unfollowing just a few key pages (or friends). Plus, I believe hiding all posts from a page might have the side effect of punishing their feed ranking, which helps others see (somewhat) fewer posts from them as well.

Sorry it's not quite the answer you wanted, but as you can see, there's a great deal of complexity / time involvement here...