All You Need to Know About Facebook Android Home

Facebook recently released a new version of its Android app, but it is not the typical app you would install on your phone. Instead, it’s an entire makeover of your smartphone experience, one that fills your screen with your friends, all while simultaneously allowing you to access and use all of your apps. Instead of building its own phone or asking Android to build a new operating system around Facebook, the company has done some major retooling of Google’s Android operating system. As Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Facebook Home puts people first instead of the apps.”

The Facebook Android Home Experience

Facebook Home is more than just an app; it’s an experience. It acts like the skin of your smartphone. Instead of the typical home screen, Facebook Home populates Facebook news feed with content like status updates, photos, and messages from your friends. Facebook home will be the center of your phone, all while giving you easy access to use all the apps you would normally use, on a daily basis.

Features

Facebook Home has numerous features, however two key features are Cover Feed and Chat Heads.

Cover Feed: Cover feed is the screen that is visible first when you turn on the phone. Instead of your previous home screen, that simply showed your background photo and clock, now your friends fill the screen. As soon as you turn on your phone or press the home button, you see a stream of posts from your News Feed. Cover feed puts the focus on whatever friends are sharing now—photos, status updates, links and more. While you are browsing through your cover feed you are also able to chat or message friends and access all other apps, all while using Facebook Home.

Chat Heads: With chat heads now you can message, text or chat with someone all while staying in your current app. When you receive a message through text or through Facebook, the sender’s profile photo is displayed on the screen in a tiny circle with a notification. You can then tap on the photo and initiate a chat with that person. Facebook Home has the capability of producing multiple Chat Heads on the screen. It is a great way to enhance your messaging experience all while staying in your current app. All your conversations are now in one spot and you can drag chat heads away when you are done.

Getting Facebook Home

HTC and AT&T have included and built-in Facebook Home on the new HTC First phone. The HTC First is priced at $99.99 and was released on April 12 and can be purchased through AT&T. Although tablets are not supported yet, Facebook has promised that it will eventually roll out Facebook Home for tablets. Facebook Home is also downloadable through the Google Play Store. It is compatible with Samsung Galaxy SIII, Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note II, HTC One X and HTC One Plus.

For more information on Facebook Android Home, contact us at Dapper Goat today!