Facebook has disbanded the team that developed Facebook Home, its replacement home screen for Android devices.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the New York Times reports engineers assigned to Facebook Home have been reassigned to other departments within the company. Facebook launched Home in April 2013 along with the HTC First smartphone. Both were considered to be failures within weeks of launch, with poor uptake and negative reviews.
Home offered an alternative home screen to Android devices that replaced the user interface with links to status updates, the camera, and other sharing tools. Facebook has not updated Home since January, but the app is still available from the Google Play Store.
Earlier this year, Facebook released Paper, an app that repackages the Facebook Newsfeed into a more digestible digital magazine. Facebook did not comment on the Times’ story.
