Yesterday’s leak of the HTC First gave the impression that it was going to be the much ballyhooed Facebook Phone at last. Instead, HTC and Facebook gave us something far more interesting.
The HTC First is indeed a phone with strong connections to Facebook. However, the solution that powers it, Facebook Home, is more than just an attempt at branding. Home is more like a third party launcher, replacing the standard Android UI, and taking over notifications and giving you an ongoing feed, including on your lock screen.
The most impressive bit is that the Facebook Home isn’t device exclusive and will be available via the Play store for the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S IV, Note II, HTC One+, and new HTC One. These are all heavily skinned devices to begin with, so it’s interesting to consider what they’d be like with Home instead. This is particularly the case with the One, which will already have a feed page. So, what makes Facebook’s skin better?
One feature bound to win some people over is Chat Heads. This feature merges Facebook Messages and SMS messages. It’s also a feature I love in Windows Phone, and Facebook Home’s implementation seems fairly non-intrusive.
Home will also be available for tablets some time in the future, as well as more phones. If you don’t want to wait, you can get the HTC First on AT&T for $99.99 with contract as of April 12. What you shouldn’t expect is to see Home on iOS. This isn’t surprising considering that Facebook is basically rewriting the user interface to devices, which is something Apple isn’t a fan of.
Facebook intends for Home to replace a discrete app, and it’s an intriguing idea. Google has been baking Google Plus in at this level, but because no one actually uses Google Plus, Facebook doing so is far more tempting.
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