Earlier this year, at Google I/O, the search company introduced a new Android feature targeted at developers who want to test their software. Instead of asking users to side-load applications, which introduces a whole host of security issues, developers could now simply ask users to join a Google Group. From that point on, their app would get updated just like a regular Android app, via the Play Store, but it would be a beta/alpha version. Twitter has used this feature, so has Facebook with their beta program, but today they’ve decided to take things to the next level with their alpha program.

As the name implies, alphas come before betas. They’re ridiculously crash prone. I subscribed to this alpha Facebook group, and it took me three tries to login to my account because the app would simply not start up correctly. Facebook says they plan on issuing updates several times a week, so again, this isn’t for the faint of heart.

What’s new in the alpha build? Like I said, I installed it, only because I’m curious to see what Facebook is working on and I use the app maybe once every other day. From the few minutes I’ve played with it, I can’t spot any differences, none, from the stable version, other than those start up bugs I mentioned.

So how do you join? Click here and follow the instructions.