The speculation is over. Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled Facebook Home and is clear. "We are not building a telephone and we are not building an operating system". Facebook Home is more than just a simple Androidapplication though. It is a group of applications which take advantage of the open mobile OS.
Facebook Home becomes the welcome and locking screen of the smartphone, with the usual Android applications being easy to access in Home with an applications launcher that can easily manage favourite applications.
The central element is a window called Cover Feed. Once the smartphone is turned on, or when the home button is pressed, you will see a screen full of photos and Facebook news feed items. It is for example possible to like photos by clicking on it twice.
Facebook Home becomes the welcome and locking screen of the smartphone, with the usual Android applications being easy to access in Home with an applications launcher that can easily manage favourite applications.
The central element is a window called Cover Feed. Once the smartphone is turned on, or when the home button is pressed, you will see a screen full of photos and Facebook news feed items. It is for example possible to like photos by clicking on it twice.
When a friend publishes on the users Timeline, a notification is received with the profile photo directly on the welcome screen. If you don’t want to see this then you simply need to drag the notification to the side of the screen and it will no longer be displayed.
While Facebook Home will occupy the role of Facebook on Android, Facebook Messenger is also an important function. It will be supported by Chat Heads so that it can also send and receive SMS messages through the same use as any other Facebook application.
Facebook Home will be available as a free download from the 12th of April from the Google Play portal (initially in the USA and then soon after in other countries). Before other handsets follow, the service will initially be released for five compatible phones: HTC One X and One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, Samsung Galaxy Note 2. A tablet release will be made available at a later date.
Facebook Home will also come pre-installed on the HTC First smartphone. This LTE model is equipped with a 1 GHz dual core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.3 inch screen and 5 mega pixel camera lens. It will be sold in the United States by AT&T for 99.99 dollars.
