Synching Facebook Contacts without using Full Names

I don't think so. I had the same problem. I had to change a lot of my contacts' names in order to get their Facebook profiles to populate on the phone itself.

I thought entering a nickname would fix this. I assumed that the nickname would trump the given name and display that on your phone, for instance when that person calls or texts you, and preferably in the contact list. It seems, though, that nicknames are completely useless and do absolutely nothing except waste a space in the contact info. I'm not sure why they're even there.

A little bit strange/disappointing, but I got over it.

 

Yes, you can now do this. Free. You'll need Asurion AddressBook, with its FaceBook mix-in, both available in the Market (as of last week). I posted about this earlier. Run a search here for asurion to get links to screenies. Don't remember whether I posted to this app forum or the Droid forum.

Your device must run 1.6 or 2.x to run this new app.

Caveats: this is a beta deal. I've found that the addressbook itself runs smooth, so it lives on my home screen. But when FB does its periodic background sync, it becomes a force close party. Ditto the Twitter mix-in. Doesn't stop anything else on the device, but it's an inconvenient pain.

The good news: Once you load both parts (AddressBook and its FaceBook mix-in), you can use the menu to MANUALLY "match" up your FB contacts with your pre-existing phone contacts, withOUT changing any names. The screen is split, with each list appearing on either side. You just scroll thru each list, literally single-tap on the left, and then its matching on the right, and it's done. There's also an automated process, which is safe-- in the sense that (1) you tell the app whether to keep your Droid contact pics, or overwrite (it'll add FB pics where no pic has been assigned); and (2) if mismatches occur, it's super easy to correct, using the manual method previously described.

I repeat: I use AddressBook daily and love it. BUT I had to disable the dang background sync. It just ain't ready for prime time. That sync lives to bring your friends' recent posts within the app. So, tapping the new F icon, within a particular contact's screen, shows that person's recent posts. The weird part is, despite the FCs, somehow, the sync still works well enough to get the updated posts. I just grew tired of having to tap the FC/close-it button on a regular basis. (You can change the sync timespan though to make the FCs less frequent.)

Droid 2.0.1. Check user comments at the market for info re your particular device.

 

i just create a new contact with her full name ... then join them ... then delete the full name part of the contact ..... it's many steps but it's a solid work around .... you can then have the friends nickname and their facebook