It’s as if Facebook has taken over the phone’s prime real estate and pushed Foursquare, email, weather, YouTube and my alarm clock to the slums.
NEW YORK: When I got my first smartphone in 2010, I checked Facebook obsessively. But over time, the novelty wore off and opening Facebook’s app to check photos, links and posts from friends turned into a chore.
In a sense, I’m the ideal target for Facebook’s new Home app. Those photos, links and posts I couldn’t be bothered to check on the social network’s app automatically come to the screen when I turn on the phone. I can see friends’ musings scroll by, as photos they’ve chosen to highlight take up the entire screen in the background. A new one appears every seven seconds.
It’s as if Facebook has taken over the phone’s prime real estate and pushed Foursquare, email, weather, YouTube and my alarm clock to the slums.
Home is ideal for people whose lives are centered on Facebook. Others might not feel at home.
At first, the free app is available only on certain phones running Google’s Android operating system, HTC Corp’s One, One X and One X Plus and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will work on the Galaxy S 4 when the phone goes on sale in the coming weeks.
If you have a Facebook app already installed on one of those phones, you’ll get a prompt when Home is ready to download on Friday. Otherwise, visit the phone’s Google Play store to get it. Home comes already installed on the HTC First, which ships Friday and costs $100 in the U.S. with a two-year AT&T Inc. service contract. I had a chance to spend several hours with a First that Facebook Inc. lent me to try out ahead of Home’s public debut.
Facebook has no current plans to bring Home to the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Windows devices. That’s because Google makes Android available on an open-source basis, free for anyone to modify, so it’s easier to make changes.
That last part is key to the Home experience. Normally, Google’s apps and services are front and center. Android makes it easy to get on Gmail, navigate with Google Maps and search for things using its Google Now voice assistant, all with a tap or two on the phone. Facebook is taking advantage of its rival’s open-source policy to place its apps and services front and center.
Right from the home screen, you see the things your friends are sharing on Facebook. Not interested in what Dave has to say? There’s Mary replacing him in seven seconds, and Jennifer replacing her seven seconds later. Mixed in are posts from some of the groups you follow. Facebook says you’ll eventually get ads there, too.
Facebook calls this the Cover Feed. I call it Facebook on steroids.
I hardly have time to digest a post before a new one appears, and in many cases I’m seeing only the first several words in a post, hardly enough to convey a thought. The good news is that I can pause the stream and view the full post at any time by tapping the screen. In doing so, I can comment on a post or hit a “like” button. The scrolling stream continues with another tap.
As the text of your friend’s post appears, you’ll see in the background the person’s cover photo, the large image your friend chooses to display at the top of his or her profile page. Because cover photos are horizontal, and the app is designed for vertical use, you’re seeing only a snippet at a time. The part that is visible shifts over those seven seconds, as if a camera is slowly moving across, similar to the panning technique used in Ken Burns documentaries.
