Facebook unveiled its’ new home on Android. And as expected, Mark was very clear in saying that they are NOT building their own smartphone, but they’re aiming at making the smartphone experience better with their homebrew apps and customizations. The first stop right now, is on Android. And we take you through what they unveiled and what’s in it for you.
What is ‘Facebook Home’?
Mark Zukerberg started off with an interesting note. He said:
“More accurately, we’re gonna talk about how you can turn your phone into a Facebook phone. Phones are designed around apps, not people. We wanna flip that around.”
And we think their idea is worth it. The new Facebook Home is a set of social networking apps, built around Facebook that becomes the new home for your Android device. As the company says, they’ve tried to put people first on the phones, rather than the apps that is currently appearing first. The Facebook Home consists of some of the interesting customizations and real working apps, that has features like Cover Feed, integrated chat and group chat feature called Chatheads, and much more features that we’ll be exploring shortly.
Here’s the official video demo of Facebook Home:
Why Facebook Home?
Well, Facebook has a point. According to them, people want to talk to people, and not apps, when they lift their phones. And I think they’re right. At least for me, I always use my phone to talk to people, and interact with people. The Facebook Home is here to address this thing on your phone. As Mark said, people would be able to turn their Android phones into a great social device with just installing Facebook Home from the Google Play Store.
Facebook Home: The Features and Beyond:
Now that its’ officially out, and will be available for download to a limited models of Android Phones starting this April 12th via the Google Play Store. Before we get into how to get kind of details, let’s jump right into the features.
The first thing is the Cover feed. A new visually stunning lockscreen, with added features like the ability to initiate messages, post updates and such. This is basically a swipable version of News Feed on the Android device.
The next big feature is the Chatheads. These are floating widgets that can appear when a new message is received, anywhere on the phone. It does not require you to switch to the messaging app to reply to your friend. but if you’re not interested in replying back immediately, you can drag the Chathead widget towards the bottom of the screen to remove it from your view.
While these are some of the major features that Facebook Home brings, there’s much more like this, and these can be found on the Facebook Home pre-installed devices like the HTC First.
The HTC First is a LTE capable device, basically running stock Android Jelly Bean, and comes with Facebook Home installed and activated by default. And Facebook has no-regrets in calling it, the first official Facebook Phone. The phone is now up for pre-order at AT&T for $99.
Facebook has partnered with HTC and AT&T to bring Facebook Home to the hands of the customers, who’d love to experience is fully on their hands, but the Facebook Home will be available for Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II.
These are interesting. And most of the features that come with the Facebook Home are really good. And these features are like those we’ve been seeing in concept videos, and now, they’re real. But there’s one thing which is breaking my mind. Battery Life and performance. Facebook Home is definitely going to consume a lot of battery life, and also a lot of data in the background.