Facebook today announced a new push into the mobile space with new Android-based software that exists as its own user interface overlay. The UI overlay is called Facebook Home, and can be used to replace the home screen of select Android smartphones.
The Facebook Home screen makes people a priority – not apps. It serves as the lock screen and the home screen, can be used to replace the camera app and other system-level tools/apps and bring them into the Facecbook Home app.
Notifications, for example, are based on contacts, not apps. Facebook Home’s Chat Heads feature, which is a new messaging tool, can be used on top of other running apps. For example, text messages and Facebook messages use the same user interface. Chat Heads doesn’t interrupt them the current apps, but it will offer floating images of a contact’s head with a link to their incoming message. That message can then be expanded and responded to, and then flicked off the screen to return to the current app. Facebook Home has its own app drawer for connected apps, and makes it easy to always post a photo or status update.
Facebook Home requires both the latest version of the main Facebook app as well as the Facebook Messenger application. Only then can it be downloaded and installed from the Google Play Store. It serves as a launcher, and can replace the stock launcher that comes with many Android phones (and tablets).
Facebook Home will first be available to the HTC One X, One X+, and One, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S III, Note II and S4. Facebook Home will be available on more devices in the coming months.
