Facebook Home was a

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

layer for Android

smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...

. Developed by the company then known as Facebook (now

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), the software was designed to be a drop-in replacement for the device's existing home screen ("launcher"). It provided a replacement home screen that allowed users to easily view and post content on Facebook along with launching apps, a replacement lock screen that displayed notifications from Facebook and other apps, and an overlay which allowed users to chat via Facebook messages or

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

from any app. Facebook Home was unveiled at a press event on April 4, 2013, and was released on April 12, 2013 for a limited selection of devices from

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t), or High Tech Computer Corporation (abbreviated and trading as HTC), is a Taiwanese consumer electronics corporatio ...

and

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (SEC; stylized as SΛMSUNG; ) is a South Korean multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation founded on 13 January 1969 and headquartered in Yeongtong District, Suwon, South Korea. It is curr ...

including the HTC First, a new smartphone pre-loaded with the software. Facebook is no longer supporting or providing updates for Facebook Home.

Design

Citing that many users use

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s for

social networking service A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interest ...

s such as Facebook, its designers aimed to create an alternative user environment that would emphasize interacting with the device through people instead of apps. The ''Cover Feed'' served as the replacement home screen while using Facebook Home; it was used to view updates posted by others on Facebook in a full screen environment and access an application launcher. The lock screen displayed notifications (sorted by priority using an internal algorithm) from both Facebook and other apps on cards, while also displaying updates in a similar format. Home aimed to hide as much of the Android

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

as possible; by default, interface elements such as the status bar on the top of the screen were hidden. A system known as "Chat Heads" was used for messages and

; avatars of friends in a conversation with the user were overlaid on the Android interface. Tapping an avatar opened a pop-up chat window over the app currently in use.

Device compatibility

Facebook promised support for Home on a "wide range of devices" (including smartphones and tablets), but it was only compatible with the HTC First (which is pre-loaded with Home and was unveiled alongside the software), One X, One X+, One (M7),

Samsung Galaxy S III The Samsung Galaxy S III (unofficially known as the Samsung Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone developed and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold ph ...

, S4, Note II, and Nexus 4. Initially the ability to view non-Facebook notifications through Home was only available on the HTC First, as technical limitations that prevented this functionality on other devices were patched by HTC in the First's distribution of Android. While the Facebook Home interface was officially incompatible with all other Android devices, some of its features were backported to Facebook's main apps. An update to the Facebook Messenger app added Chat Heads, while an update to the main Facebook app in August 2013 added the ability to enable Cover Feed as the lock screen (however, Cover Feed only supported devices that would otherwise support Facebook Home).

Reception

A few hours after release, it had received an average review of 2.3 out of 5 on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

. Though expert reviews, such as from

David Pogue David Welch Pogue (born March 9, 1963) is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter, and correspondent for ''CBS News Sunday Morning''. He has hosted 18 ''Nova'' specials on PBS, including '' Nova ScienceNow'', the ''Making Stu ...

of the ''New York Times'', were more positive, they generally acknowledged that while the experience of Home was very polished, it "reinvents the way you open programs on your phone" to enhance focus on Facebook features, to the detriment of other apps not focused on

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. Others, like Om Malik, highlighted potential privacy concerns, noting that use of Facebook Home might allow the company unprecedented access to user data on mobile devices. In response to its poor reception, Facebook indicated in late-May 2013 that it was planning on making improvements to Home in response to consumer feedback. The first of these improvements came in an update released in early-June 2013, adding the ability to pin shortcuts to a tray on the bottom of the application menu screen. In December 2013, Facebook released an update to Home, which added a more traditional home screen. Home has not been updated since, and is no longer available in the Google Play Store.

References

External links

* {{Facebook navbox, state=uncollapsed Android (operating system) software Facebook software Mobile application launchers