One of the announcements that has rocked the world of smartphones in the last couple of days is that of Facebook Home, which is as Facebook says,
a piece of software for your phone designed to put your friends above everything else.What does this mean to the existing smartphones, and how does it affect the status quo? Let’s find out. Check out the promo video:
The announcement came two days ago, on . It has received, as expected, widespread attention from the smartphone community. On an unrelated note, I was unable to check it out at the time because I was hospitalized for renal calculi that were eating me alive. Facebook Home is not a new operating system that targets Android or iOS, neither is it an enhanced app for your existing Facebook smartphone app, which by the way is one of the most popular apps out there. Facebook Home is an enhanced home screen option for Android devices. Also, not for all Android phones, only these—HTC’s First, One, One X, Samsung’s Galaxy S IV, S III, and Note II. Also, it is right now made available to the US residents only.
In essence, Facebook has announced its own home screen option for Android devices, and you can see this as something similar to apps like SPB Mobile Shell, ADW.Launcher, etc. In essence, Facebook Home could prove fatal to any other free and paid Android launcher replacements. Home is freely available with the devices mentioned above. Just go to Google Play to get it into your device.
The Features
Facebook Home looks like this.
This app (more like software package) has three major features—Cover Feed, Chat Heads, and App Launcher.
Cover Feed is more like your Facebook Newsfeed in place of your phone’s lock screen. The feed tells you stories from your close friends that you are following. It also gives the reception statistics (likes and comments) on each story. And the design of the feature is pretty elegant. Swiping to the right reveals more stories from your friends.
Within the cover feed, you can get notifications on a number of things—status updates, calls, messages, app updates, etc. It is sort of reminiscent of the Ubuntu for smartphones home screen.
Chat Heads feature is a basic messenger that helps you chat with your Facebook friends, even while working on other apps on the side. Both SMS messages and FB messages are possible through Chat Heads. Your friend appears as a tiny chat head that you can move around anywhere on the screen.
App Launcher feature is exactly the one on Android right now. It is a simple launcher that simplifies access to your most used apps. You can place shortcut icons to the apps that you frequently use and the launcher will give you a place to launch them from! Check it out.
Those were the basic features of Facebook Home.
The Home Partnership Program
Facebook, with Home, has also launched a partnership program, called Facebook Home Program [please fix the typo in ‘billon’ by the way, Facebook, it’s ‘billion’, not an alloy named billon, which may not be spotted as a typo by regular word processors], mainly targeting the mobile operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in order to widen the scope of Home, which is available in only a few HTC and Samsung devices right now.
This is something worth looking at. While we don’t have any idea of the internal coding of Facebook Home, we can certainly speculate that it is not meant to be installed as simply as any other Android app. It somehow aspires for tie-ups with OEMs and carriers, unlike other home page replacements, which don’t. This invokes a lot of questions too.
Although right now, only HTC First was released with Home preinstalled, there are other companies like Sony, AT&T, Qualcomm, ZTE, and Huawei, in the Home program, which may come up with their own products in the coming months.
The Speculations
A number of speculations are floating around the web regarding Home and how it is going to change the smartphone market. One of the interesting articles was published by ReadWrite, which talks about a number of losers—Apple, Google, Microsoft, handset makers, app developers, carriers, etc., and oddly puts HTC and Google among the winners too.
There is one thing to consider about Home—how successful it is actually going to be. As we know pretty well, Android users are pretty much satisfied with the already existing home screen offering, and there are a number of innovations coming from OEMs, in the form of HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz, etc. They already have all the home screen options they really need. It is not possible to know how much of an impact Facebook Home could really make.
The initial reception of Home is definitely not positive. Average rating of the app is 2.4 out of 5, with 1579 people (over 46 percent of the users) rating it at one star. Not three, not even two, at one star. It is a pretty pathetic rating for any Android app out there.
Many reviews that I looked through talked about the lack of widgets and customization options on the home screen. Also, some were bummed out by the fact that it was difficult for them to return to the regular Android home screen to open up their apps. Elegant design and simplicity had nothing to do with Home’s acceptance, it seems.
Home’s availability in Android platform is something worth noting. For one thing, HTC is a manufacturer looking for any option to boost its sales, and a new device, HTC First, in collaboration with Facebook could really help it. That’s one reason why they opted for it.
While most of the app developers try to get Apple’s approval first to get into the App store, Facebook turned to Android first. It is also not known whether an iOS version is up ahead. Apple however doesn’t worry as always at developments outside its realm. Facebook’s one billion active users and less than half a million users testing Facebook Home right now should come under consideration. Facebook’s regular Android app enjoys nearly 500 million active users, while Home has got less than a hundredth of them. This is so despite the enormous popularity of Galaxy S3 and Note II, which support Home.
We see quite a number of apps and features from top tech companies that go more or less unnoticed. Even Google has a huge number of applications that have a tiny user base or are on the verge of termination like the Google Reader. Hence, it is difficult for us to speak anything certain about Facebook Home at this time. It could possibly change the landscape of smartphone market, or it could go simply unnoticed.
HTC First
Check out HTC First, announced on as part of a press meet by Facebook, and released along with Facebook Home on . The smartphone is a low-end device running Snapdragon 400 processor, with 4.3 inch 720p HD display, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, 1 GB RAM, 5 MP camera with FHD recording, 2000 mAh battery, and internal storage option of 16 GB.
The device is available to order from its official carrier, AT&T.
HTC First smartphone is one low-end device you could buy if you would like to test Facebook Home, but it is not something that I would recommend. If you look through AT&T’s list of high end smartphones, you would come across a number of them—Galaxy S3, Lumia 920, LG Optimus G, iPhone 4S, etc., all priced at 99 dollars. HTC First doesn’t have any inspiring features to be priced on par with these devices.
In Conclusion
The true motivation and business targets of Facebook with the release of Home will be revealed in the coming days only. We will have an opportunity to closely analyze this app, along with the reception of two important Android devices to come to the market, Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, both of which will support Home. At this time, through the comments, let us know of your experience with Home if you are a user.