Talks about a Facebook phone has been in the rumor mills for
quite some time now. Today, Facebook has finally ended all the speculations by announcing
the long awaited Facebook phone (well, sort of) at an event on its headquarters
in California.
However, the Facebook phone that was unveiled in the event
wasn’t exactly the phone that everyone was expecting. Why? Because unlike what
the rumors suggested, the phone that was presented to the world today wasn’t built
by Facebook. The phone is made by HTC and runs a heavily customized version of
Android – the “Facebook Home”.
Moreover, contrary to previous reports, Facebook Home is not
just a home replacement app but rather a collection of apps that modify a huge
part of the Android UI that will supposedly enable users to focus on their
friends rather than on apps. Through the app, Facebook plans to bring in more
content to users and put social networking at the front and at the center of
the mobile phone experience. And this ideology is most evident in the two core
apps that comprise Facebook Home – Coverfeed and Chat Heads.
Coverfeed is basically a glorified version of your Facebook
newsfeed presented in edge-to-edge photos in the phone’s home screen. It
displays images and status updates from a user’s friends. A user can swipe left
and right to view other updates from his/her friends, double-tap on the home
screen to like the update or view comments and likes by tapping the area
located at the bottom of the home screen.
Chat Heads on the other hand is an improved version of the
Facebook Messenger app that sits above the entire UI of the phone, allowing
users to gain access to the phone’s messaging app anywhere in the phone. Users
have the option to move 1 or a group of chat heads across the different edges
of the screen and will remain visible as long as the users wants to interact
with it.
Navigation on the Facebook Home has also drastically
changed. The common back and navigation buttons are gone and are replaced by
gesture-based commands carried out by a “bobble” which is the circular icon
that contains the phone owner’s photo (or profile picture) located at the
bottom of the screen. Users can swipe up from the bobble which will launch the
app drawer.
The app drawer is divided into two segments. Once a user
swipe’s up from the bobble, the favorites app drawer is first shown. Obviously
this is where the user’s most used and favorite apps are located. The favorites
app drawer also has three tabs at the top that lets users instantly upload
photos to Facebook, post a status update or location. Swiping to the left of
the favorites app drawer will direct the user to the main app drawer that holds
all the apps currently installed on the phone.
Swiping the bobble to the left will launch the Facebook
messaging app while swiping the bobble to the right will allow users to go back
to the last app that they’ve opened.
Facebook Home will initially be released on April 12 on
several handsets including the HTC One, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy SIII,
Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Note II and of course the HTC First
(exclusive to AT&T). Facebook has also promised to bring monthly updates and
improvement to the app as well as add support for additional phone models and
manufacturers including Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei and Sony.
Now it would be interesting how Google would react in the
future with Facebook Home especially if Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of putting the
app in every smartphone would come true. This is because unlike other home
replacement apps or custom ROMs, Facebook Home can have the ability to
literally take over and change a phone and make Android OS lose its identity in
the process.
What about you guys? What do you think? Is Facebook invading
Android? And how do you think Google would react to this strategy? Share with
us your thoughts by leaving a comment below. For other Filipino Lifestyle
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