The Facebook phone is almost here, and luckily, it isn’t the one we were looking for.
Instead of the long-rumored dedicated handheld, Facebook Home is a custom launcher/home screen for your Android device. Basically, users download the “app,” and voila, Facebook is running your phone.
The interface itself is impressive. Your home screen is a Flipboard-esque panorama of your friends’ latest posts, pictures or stories. Swiping up, left or right from the bottom of the device brings up an app drawer, messaging or the Facebook app.
Apps can be downloaded via the Google Play store, and notifications from messages, apps or emails show up on the lock screen, just like the iPhone.
But the most interesting feature of Home is the persistent chat heads that pop up when browsing the OS. No matter what app is open, circular chat heads with friends’ pictures inside appear when a new message is received. It’s a nice alternative to the screen-hogging iOS notifications and too-subtle Android ones.
Home will be available for download in the coming months on select Android devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S3, but those who want it as soon as possible need to buy a new phone — the HTC First — on April 12.
The First is a run-of-the mill, $99 Android phone with a 4.3-inch, 720p display, 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. While that doesn’t touch specs of high-end phones like the upcoming Galaxy S4 or HTC One, it should handle most actions with relative ease.
It runs Home on a stock version of Android 4.1, and that’s a huge deal: Home can be completely turned off, leaving a pure, unaltered Android experience. It’s the first device to do so outside of Google’s own Nexus line.
Obviously, Facebook doesn’t want users to do that — it wants everyone to switch to Home. And the social networking giant made the smart choice by not making its own hardware. Instead of competing for third place with BlackBerry and Windows Phone, Facebook can piggyback on the millions of Android users that already exist, putting them on the most popular smartphone operating system in the world.
That is, of course, if it can convince people to use it.
Facebook Home launches Friday on the HTC First, exclusively on the AT&T network.
Taylor Balkom is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge.
