MENLO PARK—Facebook on Thursday introduced a new mobile experience for Android smartphones called Home, ending months of speculation that the social networking giant was preparing to jump feet first into mobile with its own "Facebook phone."
"Today, we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone, or more accurately we're going to talk about how you can turn your Android phone into a great Facebook device," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a press event held at the company's headquarters.
HTC and AT&T will deliver the first Facebook Home-optimized smartphone, the $99.99 HTC first, on April 12 with pre-orders starting immediately. Home will also be available for U.S. users on Google Play for several more Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean handsets from HTC, Samsung, and others on the same date, Zuckerberg said.
While rumors had swirled that Facebook might introduce an actual handset or its own mobile operating system, Home is neither. Yet calling it an "app" seems an understatement as well.
Home, if anything, appears to be an Android app on steroids—it completely remakes the experience of turning on a smartphone, turning the intro screen into a Facebook feed complete with notifications and one-click access to a user's content on the social network.
Another novel Home feature is Chat Heads, a new approach to managing text and IM conversations with friends on a mobile device without interrupting other apps that are being engaged. Chat Heads pops up over an open app without shutting it down, can handle SMS and IM messages, and can be easily swiped to expand or collapse.
The app also features ID bubbles at the top of chats for pictures or avatars of those you're conversing with, and it allows users to manage multiple chats with friends simply by tapping on those bubbles to switch between conversations.
"Chat Heads is a way you can talk to your friends no matter what you're doing on your phone. We think it's the first way to easily manage multiple conversations," said Joey Flynn, a Facebook product designer.
Zuckerberg and other Facebook representatives that Home is not a new OS and that installing it does not require one to "massively fork" Android. Instead, the company assured us, loading Home on Android phones supporting it will be a simple matter of accepting the upgrade when it's pushed out on April 12, then clicking over to Google's Play Store to download it.
Facebook also said a version for Android tablets was being developed and would be released in a few months.
The company promised that Home would be improved on a monthly basis, with upgraded versions pushed out on as tight a schedule as Facebook keeps for updates to its other mobile apps.
"We're really proud about Home and really excited to get it in your hands. We think this is the best version of Facebook there is," Zuckerberg said.
For more, see Facebook Home Gets Mobile Right.
About Damon Poeter
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