Facebook announced Facebook Home last week in collaboration with HTC for Android platform. At Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley, Facebook founder Mark mentioned, "We're not building a phone and we're not building an operating system, but we are building something that's a lot deeper than an app". The app is set to be released on 12th April, 2013.
Facebook has been a prevalent social networking platform for sharing photographs, connecting with individuals and also as a chat application. With its increasing popularity and a need to increase user engagement over the platform, Facebook has introduced its new smartphone application, Facebook Home. It's a software suit that integrates with the architecture of the smartphone OS (till now only for Android Jelly Bean and ICS) and will be launched as an in-built application with HTC First on 12th April 2013. If referred to the words of Mark, Facebook Home will also be available on "HTC One, One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, Note 2, and the S4 after its launch".
Some of the features which can be speculated from the conference held at Facebook's headquarters yesterday are as follows:
Updates: A new update will be launched each month for the users to refine user experience. Updates will be based depending on user interaction with the application, which will be tracked for basic analysis. However, data from the same will be stored with absolute anonymity. Customization: Facebook Home can be operated in homescreen as well as in lockscreen for assisting users to access their account. However, users will still be able to customize their usage option; whether they want to use it on homescreen or lockscreen or both. Navigation between apps: Though being a Facebook dominated phone, users will be able to navigate between the chat, apps and homescreen with simple taps. Message window pops up in front of a user and works equally efficient for phonebook messages as well. The feature is called as Chatheads . User-oriented: Facebook home is oriented at increasing user experience over any other parameter. This is the reason that when a user turns on his mobile device, instead of peeking into the apps and email updates, he encounters his Facebook feeds from friends and groups.
Even after its availability as an in-built application, Facebook Home makes use of the user customization features efficiently. For a question asked during the conference by a reporter about the selection of search engine for making any search through the application, Mark replied "It's an Android Phone, you can use whatever you want". This clearly indicates that Facebook has not tried to over-power the openness of Android and has developed its "more than an app" around the same specifications.
The sad news about Facebook Home is that it will be available only on few Android devices specifically for AT&T users of USA, initially. Other users may have to wait for a while until the next announcement. Moreover, it's a "phone-only" app so no availability for tablet device can be expected yet.
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/facebook-home-to-be-released-on-12th-april?cid=roadrunner