In what could be read as a kind of counter-offensive against the growing background noise about Facebook losing its relevancy in the face of newer, more mobile optimized networks, the social media giant unveiled their new not-really-a-phone-but-kind-of, at the company campus in Menlo Park. Mark Zuckerberg himself was on hand to unveil the big surprise that turned out to be not really that much of a surprise and not that much of a phone either.
The somewhat anti-climactic announcement wasn't about an actual physical device so much as it was about Facebook Home; a new suite of apps, designed to overhaul your smartphone and transform it into what could be regarded as either the ultimate Facebook machine, or as a phone that's only good for checking Facebook, depending on your POV.
So by now you might be thinking that the whole thing was nothing more than a marketing stunt, designed to drum up excitement for a platform that's losing its edge, particularly in the mobile space. But, we must admit, that while it may not exactly reinvent the wheel, Facebook Home does seem pretty cool.
Coverfeed, one of the apps that's included in the suite, over-hauls your homescreen and your lockscreen, providing you with updates on what your friends are up to, without the need for you to launch an app, or so much as even unlock your phone. With Coverfeed, you can comment on and "like" posts directly from your homescreen. Everything is displayed full-screen, and it's all decidedly un-Android like. In a presumed effort to put those nervous Facebook investors at ease, Coverfeed will also likely soon display ads in a similar manner.
Another cool feature called "Chat Heads" allows you to tap icons of your friends' faces to produce chat windows. It's a pretty simple, direct platform for chatting that seems to take the best from SMS and Facebook chat to create a simple, direct, and very native feeling channel for staying in contact with your . . . well, contacts.
On the whole, we're impressed with how simple and intuitive Facebook Home appears to be at first glance. It was designed to be more gesture-based than previous mobile incarnations of Facebook. Home also makes it very easy to update your status and post photos from just about anywhere on your phone. With more and more users migrating to mobile to do their social networking, Home might just be the innovation that puts a hush on the naysayers talking about Facebook losing the plot.
Oh, and there was an actual phone on display today as well - the HTC First - a fairly run-of-the-mill model HTC Android phone that will be available with Facebook Home pre-loaded on it, starting April 12. That same day, Home will also be available on select other devices including the HTC One, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note II. Facebook eventually plans to roll out Home to a wider range of devices including tablets.