Facebook’s new ‘Home’ promises to ‘make any Android phone a Facebook phone’

“Facebook is taking over the Android operating system, the company announced this morning in a huge event at its headquarters,” Jolie O’Dell reports for VentureBeat.

“The new Facebook Android plan isn’t an OS and isn’t a phone, [Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg] continued, but it’s ‘a whole lot deeper than an ordinary app,'” O’Dell reports. “Facebook is now providing a tone-setting homescreen that will make your Android phone a lot more personal. It’s a family of apps called ‘Home.'”

O’Dell reports, “The new Home app bundle will be available for some devices starting today, Zuckerberg said. April 12 will be the start date for the larger rollout, when you can download Home directly from Android Play. Also, HTC and AT&T are partnering with Facebook to build Facebook Home-focused hardware.”

Facebook’s “Home” seen on a variety of Apple iPhone knockoffs and wannabes:

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Try as we might… yawn.

33 Comments

  1. Yeah… Uh no – I like to see pictures of my own kids on my home screen – not someone else’s kids or dinner they ate last night and I don’t care they just took a massive dump..

  2. to me it looks like if you load on to your phone then your letting facebook hijack it. All theyre doing is just forcing you to use their app before you doing anything else. i wish they had the guts to make their own phone, so we could watch it sink like a stone

    1. Right. Facebook Home is nothing but spyware. And most people who download it have no idea what the implications are.

      P.S. FB strategy is brilliant. By not making their own phone, they can get their software distributed much more widely.

  3. Don’t use it. Don’t need it. Don’t want it.Facebook and Android deserve each other. And same goes for Twitter. Talk about a waste of human energy and time! I understand Zuckerberg’s thoughts about an open platform system. Can’t say that he’s wrong. But that’s exactly why I will stay with IOS, because it’s closed. Boring? Maybe? But I’m okay with that. I don’t have enough time to play with my phone. I’m dealing with real computers, Mac Pros all day. I just need my phone to work and be safe. iPhone is king. I respect those who want an open system, different strokes for different folks. The world would be pretty boring if we all did the same thing. But I’ll stick with my iPhone. I just want a bigger one.

    1. Exactly. Waste of time is right.
      Medical coordinator for one of my doctors never answers the phone, always get voicemail, takes days to return calls and is absolutely useless.
      Was in the office waiting room the other day and she was covering the front desk. She spent every moment glued to her smart phone when she wasn’t answering the office phone. She needs to be fired and told why in big ass letters and posted to her Facebook wall so maybe she’ll see it.

    2. Right there with you. Social media have their uses but are completely overdone at the adolescent herding phase which is where hearts, minds, and wallets are most readily captured and monetized by the conscienceless quants working for Facebook and Google. Meantime some of us are trying to get some actual work done but must squander time on advisory committees instituting new workplace policies to control frivolous Internet impulses inherent in the younger part of our workforce.

  4. In addition….. Facebook Home will become Facebook Hell, for the workplace. It’s bad enough now that the 20 something generation is so pathetically lazy…..wait till Android invades the workplace with Facebook Hell…. NOTHING WILL GET DONE!! Android Facebook Hell is the modern day Black Death.

  5. FaceBook taking over Android is hilarious. Google spent all that time and effort ripping of iOS, only to have there cr@pware hidden under a layer of someone else’s cr@pware.
    What exactly was the point in expending resources on Android, if only to find your effort is instantly obfuscated.

  6. Wonder how may idiots who actually get one of these will go over their data limit due to the constant updates of pictures on the home screen.. Then they will sue Facebook

  7. Folks. there are over one billion facebook users. Ten times how many folks own iOS devices. If you do not think this is very bad news for Apple maybe you might agree Best Buy sqeezing them out is. You folks here better open your eyes. There are storm clouds approaching Apple from every direction. Investors are running away, soon customers will realize cool has left Apple.

    1. “Ten times how many folks own iOS”

      But Android users only use a small fraction of web access as iOS users.

      Then, as other journalists noted today, the older Android version don’t run FB Home, so again, half the Android phones won’t work for that.

      I think the Biz Model for “open phones” is seriously broken as a profitable business as far as I can see.

    2. Why not on a Windows Phone? Aren’t Facebook and Microsoft
      partners?
      On to iOS , forget about it, you don’t let Facebook takeover you.
      Smart but not smart enough. Can only fool android oems, their idea
      is to make a Facebook phone but not the hardware part, only home
      screen and the rest is Facebook from there. Fools trying to smart.

  8. For those who love Facebook this is a very clever move. Zillions of Facebook phone at once. Glad again I have iOS since I hate Facebook and don’t use it.

  9. Um, available “on some devices” today?!?

    Anything for iOS would be available on hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads today. Not some small sliver of Android’s market.

    Boys and girls, can you say “Fragmentation”?

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