While not a tailor-made smartphone, Facebook’s recent ‘press event’ revealed something that will most likely take over your device with the social networking brand, unveiling an official ‘app family’ made specifically for users of Android phones.
The ‘Facebook Home’ app is described as a Facebook ‘wrapper’ to the operating system, and is focused mainly on the homepage of the smartphones it runs on, the Home software is described as a “wrapper” for the operating system.
Beginning on the ‘main screen’ of the phone, users will instantly be able to see ‘notifications, messages and photos’ without needing to access the free downloadable Facebook app, with site founder Mark Zuckerberg claiming that the app offers ‘a new category of experiences’ based directly on a phone’s homepage. Such features (along with updates being viewed through the ‘homescreen’ and ‘lockscreen’) include ‘likes’ being submittable through double-tapping the notice on-screen, and a new service called Chat Heads.
The latter is recognised as being a way in which users can ”…talk to your friends no matter what application you’re in”, and described as “…the most fun and delightful messaging experience yet”, combining elements of Facebook and SMS messaging, again accessiable without the need to visit the social networking site.
Set to launch through the Google Play Store (with no details yet revealed for tablet computers), the app will be available for download as of 12 April, though first coming to HTC First via the AT&T America provider. Following that, the service will quickly arrive on the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the HT One X, with versions for the S4 and HTC One (respectively) arriving at later dates.
Zuckerberg summarised the release by again dismissing the rumours that a phone would be revealed, stating of such prospects and their current release: “We’re not building a phone and we’re not building an operating system, but we’re building much more than an app. We spend our lives sharing and connecting. What would it feel like if our phones were designed around people, not apps?”
While it remains to be seen if an app which can almost completely ‘Facebook-ify’ your phone will be taken positively, the social networking giants will start their newest venture with high hopes and an introductory video, the latter of which can be seen below. Just try not to let the app have too much power over you…