12 ms·

Facebook Home

331 points by samuel02 13y ago

Hovertruck 13y ago
Wow, it feels like I'm looking at a product page on Apple's website. Pretty.
- koyote 13y ago
  Apple's product page is pretty generic these days. This is very pretty indeed though, especially the text over the video.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    Is a Dyson vacuum cleaner generic, because other companies have started making similar models?
    - trhtrsh 13y ago
      The design has become generic, yes. That's what generic means: "pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific."
      - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
        So when everyone starts copying the design of this Facebook page, the page will become generic? I somehow doubt that’s what parent was alluding to. I read ‘generic’ as an euphemism for ‘unoriginal’, which Apple product pages definitely aren’t.
  - ianstormtaylor 13y ago
    Yeah I think this is much nicer than an Apple product page.
bretthopper 13y ago
Regardless of your thoughts on the actual Home product, this product page is incredibly well designed and thought out.
- menny 13y ago
  amazing design
- drharris 13y ago
  Agreed, but it's also an interesting product. I'm around a lot of high school aged people, and they are incredibly social. They don't really use a lot of apps, just ones that help them do social things. Building a frontend around the social experience is a clear win for at least this age group. I could see it being a bad experience for me, but younger people will flock to this. They don't care about Android vs. iOS, but they will care about a direct improvement in how social is treated. I think this is a big win for FB. But yes, very well designed product page, with good use of media. I don't waste time with video, but I was able to catch the experience anyway. That's rare in this age of "spend 5 minutes just sitting on this page".
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- fudged71 13y ago
  Surprised they don't have a "notify me on Facebook when this is available" button
- gsarrica 13y ago
  Yes I agree. Did you notice the clock widget even updates to the correct time in the "Get notifications where you need them" section?
- gpmcadam 13y ago
  It's pretty, but I left with no idea what exactly the product is.
  - ctdonath 13y ago
ereckers 13y ago
Everyone in that video seems to be having fun. Must be good. The design of the production page is nice though. The video mast is kind of what I've been waiting for for a long time. It's nicely implemented.
- jechen 13y ago
  The source reveals that the video mast is actually an animated gif (or cinemagraph, as these tasteful creations are also known as). The stutter in the beginning kind of gives it away, but still quite impressive they included such a long edit and got it to load relatively fast (coming from reddit where uncompressed gifs run amok).
  - chimeracoder 13y ago
    > or cinemagraph, as these tasteful creations are also known as Just so you know, this is not a cinemagraph. A cinemagraph is not just a synonym for "high-quality animated gif". A cinemagraph isolates one moving part from an otherwise static picture (and the assumption is that at least some motion is frozen - ie, not everything that could be moving is moving). It's kind of like spot-color[0], but for motion. Lots of good examples: http://iwdrm.tumblr.com/ http://iwdrm.tumblr.com/ [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_color http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_color
    - trhtrsh 13y ago
      Facebook is calling it a cinemegraph (see the HTML snippet in sibling commment) as part of their comprehensive war to redefine every word in the English language to be something of theirs.
  - cocoflunchy 13y ago
    For me it's a <video> element, which kind of makes more sense. <video style="display: block;" class="_534g" id="fbhome-cinemagraph" autoplay="1" loop="1"> <source src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash3/676434/970/135351913305575_544816858.mp4"> <source src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-prn1/676663/942/135351913305575_1958437471.ogv"> <img class="_53ol _53ol img" src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash3/676513/617/135351913305575_1421925707.jpg" alt=""> </video>
myko 13y ago
This looks pretty neat. I might end up installing it just to avoid using the abomination that is the official Facebook for Android app.
cadetzero 13y ago
Why don't they fix Facebook on android before releasing a new product? It frequently "shooooops" for me - crashes, lags, hogs resources, and otherwise does unexpected things. I'm very wary to install any software from Facebook on Android.
danso 13y ago
To echo a complaint that is common when designers show off prototypes/imagined-redesigns...what does all this look like when your friends aren't as attractive/good at photography? I'm talking about the Cover Feed function. In the life stage I am now, I'd say that my Facebook Phone would be showing random baby photos 80% of the time, food photos 10% of the time. I'm also curious how that feature interacts with what I've observed to be normal FB usage. When I want to post a status, I post a status. When I post photos, it's usually as a batch, not many with captions. I think that's how most people do instagrams too. So, if you have a home screen feed focused on your newsfeed...how will statuses be "attractive" looking? Using the user's default cover image? But those are extremely horizontal. The only newsfeed entities that contribute beautiful photos with substantial text that are in my newsfeed are companies and brands (OK, and George Takei).
- zwieback 13y ago
  Random baby photos and food - I'd say you could do a lot worse.
  - tahoecoder 13y ago
    You, apparently, aren't getting a whole facebook feed full of baby photos. It gets old fast. People really embrace this whole "circle of life" motif.
  - rhizome 13y ago
    Does a picture of someone's feet on a beach with a comment that "it doesn't get any better than this!" qualify as worse?
  - ctdonath 13y ago
    Wait 'til the toddler figures out how to take pictures.
- tolmasky 13y ago
  Last week would have been pretty annoying -- every single little circle would have contained the exact same red and pink equal sign. The image would have been absolutely useless as any sort of UI indicator. Perhaps this will encourage people to use pictures of themselves for their profile pictures? Might be a chicken/egg situation though.
SSilver2k2 13y ago
Link to pre-order giving anyone else a 404?
- glazskunrukitis 13y ago
  Yep
notaddicted 13y ago
Given that Facebook listed "Mobile" as a major risk to their future [1], this seems like a proportionate response. It seems like every tech giant wants the be at the top of the heap, to control software that is as close to the user as possible. In this case Google Glass looks pretty smart, you can't get any closer than a quarter inch away from my eyeball. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/05/09/facebook-tweak-s-1-adds-language-on-risks-in-growth-in-mobile-useage/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/05/09/facebook-t...
tjbiddle 13y ago
Looks like their pre-order page (http://www.att.com/facebookhome http://www.att.com/facebookhome) is 404ing. On topic - I personally wouldn't use this. Facebook belongs as an app. More integration is (almost) always nice, but I really don't need a phone dedicated to the social network - I'd prefer to move farther away from it.
machbio 13y ago
Lot of False Likes will happen - due to low quality phones..double tap means a like.. it will be the biggest concern for mobile users with facebook home installed
- nickconfer 13y ago
  I imagine Facebook has already considered this problem and it is not a big concern (and likes are their ad business, so they want lots of likes, but real likes to better target ads)... First, I'd imagine a second double tap will instantly unlike something or something similar to that nature. Secondly, users will just get used to the feature and work with it.
obilgic 13y ago
Pre-order link is broken http://www.att.com/facebookhome http://www.att.com/facebookhome
- mamatta 13y ago
  how can they afford that to happen?
  - trhtrsh 13y ago
    It matches the home page on http://facebook.com/home http://facebook.com/home, which is also down.
dotBen 13y ago
I take issue with the problem statement: "today, phones are built around tasks and apps. To see what's happening with your friends, you pull out your phone and navigate through a series of separate apps." Firstly, the value to me in owning a smartphone and paying the charges associated with it is ultimately task orientated - from running my business, to getting driving directions, to wanting to play a specific genre of music at the gym. That's actually where the value is in my phone. Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want those to become second-class citizens over friend communications. Secondly, it's very hollow to define the problem as 'your friend's activities are spread across multiple apps' when their solution only promotes Facebook activity to the fore. My FB friend's activity is currently only contained in one app - the FB app. Their solution only removes the checking of multiple apps because those other apps (non-FB social networks, IM networks, etc) are going to be relegated into obscurity and no longer top of mind. How's that ultimately helpful to my real, technology agnostic, friendships?
- rhizome 13y ago
  Well, it wouldn't be very professional for them to just come right out and say, "Say goodbye to the days of checking your Twitter feed separately by no longer using Twitter!"
- JumpCrisscross 13y ago
  "Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want [task-orientation] to become second-class citizens over friend communications." You're not their demographic. Phones are still a primarily social technology for most people. The most popular features, voice calls, text messaging, and possibly email, revolve around people. P.S. I know several people who friend news sources and bloggers and use Fb as an ersatz RSS feed, mitigating the death-by-cat-pictures eventuality.
  - k3n 13y ago
    I think you're confusing social interactions and socializing, which are quite different in intent. While socializing requires social interaction, it's not the other way around, and social media feeds off of socializing. Perhaps I'm not in the demographic either, since a majority of my call and email usage is not based in any form of socializing. Texting, somewhat more, but I do little texting, and when I do it's usually just for logistical purposes -- "meet you at 6pm at FooBar" -- which also isn't socializing.
JSadowski 13y ago
I like Android intents and all, but I think Facebook is misguided if their plan is to release a new version of Home every month. The intent preference is only remembered for the same version of the app... that means if they choose to update the version the user will be asked if they want to launch the intent with Facebook Home again ("Just Once" / "Always").
- ConstantineXVI 13y ago
  You've got this problem (wether this behavior is an actual problem or a benefit to the user is open for debate) no matter what if you rely on being a default Intent in any way. What do you expect them to do, never update again?
  - JSadowski 13y ago
    Not at all... just less frequently
- djanogo 13y ago
  Facebook already knew this, that's one of the reasons why AT&T and HTC are included in this project, for HTC first device they will install it as system app which will avoid this problem. Collaborating with HTC and AT&T allows them to install 'Home' as system app in future devices, this will allow their app to add 'layers' on top of any app. This can only be done if device is rooted or app is installed as system app.
jordn 13y ago
I think what Facebook are going for here makes a lot of sense. The home screen at the moment is a fork in the road with the choice of dozens of different app paths to take. What they're planning on doing is removing the extra step needed to start interacting with the content. It's similar to how they changed the original facebook app. Instead of starting by presenting all the options of which part of facebook you wanted to go to (profile/photos/newsfeed/messages etc.) it instead went straight into the news feed. This presumably could work just as well with the whole phone. Although my concern is that facebook is only a small subset of my sources of interesting information on mobile. It seems highly limiting for it to only show facebook app content. Maybe there's a possible opportunity for a competing, open 'home screen' app to bring it all in.
- barista 13y ago
  This takes what Windows Phone did with People hub and applies it to the whole phone instead of restricting it to an area of the phone. Of course people hub brought over people from twitter, linkedin, etc. as well so is much more comprehensive than this.
jechen 13y ago
I have my doubts about the launcher and would much rather have Twitter take on the endeavor given I derive much more utility from its network (highlighting stories on my Twitter feed seem a lot more relevant in practice when it comes to things I care about having on my phone's lock screen), but Facebook did one hell of a job with this product landing page. Props to their design team. (Ah! The video header! It's so pretty! And not a single man in sight!)
eggbrain 13y ago
I think the biggest thing for me is that my smartphone has always been a "private" thing for me, a place where I can choose to interact with people, or spend hours playing Angry Birds. With this phone, I'm forced into an environment where I feel like I need to be social all the time, and I feel that might wear on a lot of people.
- buildnship 13y ago
  "With this phone, I'm forced into an environment where I feel like I need to be social all the time" I think this was probably a user story for them and definitely one of their biggest motivations, unfortunately lol.
  - illuminate 13y ago
    Oh yeah, it's not a question of "user that doesn't want to be social", I'm sure their stories are more centered around "how to enforce social behavior and destroy the concept of temporary isolation and privacy in this particular demographic".
- Zimahl 13y ago
  I don't install non-work IM programs on my desktops anymore because I found that an 'online' status typically denoted to people that I'm available to talk. It got to a point where my wife was even pinging me too often. Then I just put it on unavailable/offline all the time and then what's the point of having it in the first place? I think the younger generation doesn't have an expectation of non-invasiveness yet. They just aren't doing anything important enough to be bothered when interrupted. I think that changes when you get a little older.
  - graeme 13y ago
    "I think the younger generation doesn't have an expectation of non-invasiveness yet. They just aren't doing anything important enough to be bothered when interrupted. I think that changes when you get a little older." I'm 27 and this rings true for me. I use to have IM enabled all the time, and work on some things in the background. That's no good for things I'm doing now, and I rarely chat idly on IM.
tg3 13y ago
The greatest benefit of a facebook phone to me has nothing to do with photos, status updates, etc (although I am likely in the minority). Facebook, to me, has become an address book of all of my friends, with contact information that updates itself when it changes. If facebook replaced my address book with my facebook friends list, and texting and calling to them "just worked", hopefully using facebook-to-facebook over Wifi when available, it would be a great phone.
- hadem 13y ago
  I've heard others say something similar in regards to their contacts. What do you do when you are not friends with someone? Just curious as I don't use Facebook often.
- eggnet 13y ago
  You can do that with the current facebook android app, in theory. I haven't tried it, but it claims to be able to do it.
- Bramble 13y ago
  do you really have that many friends who put all of their contact information on their facebook profiles?
zwieback 13y ago
I wonder if this will exacerbate the problem of people looking at their phones while driving.
- jgross206 13y ago
  why would it?
  - zwieback 13y ago
    Now you don't have to fumble with any buttons, there's something interesting on your home screen all the time so it's more tempting to take a quick look. I don't have a smart phone so I don't know if the home thing really changes anything.
lost_name 13y ago
Sometimes, I hate being such a cynical person. I see what appears to be a fine product, which adds a lot of desirable features for communication -- chat heads look especially nice -- but all I can really wonder is what else Facebook might be mining out of my phone usage that the regular Facebook App doesn't do already. Maybe they want to take over SMS messaging on the phone completely and route it through Facebook (centralized chat, it's not even unreasonable), or perhaps automatically upload everything and let you filter expoosed data after the fact (which is too late to trust that it's ever gone). When it comes pre-installed on the phone, they don't even have to ask for permission for everything.
- freshfunk 13y ago
  These worries are true for anything you install on Android. This is just another app, just presente differently.
  - rhizome 13y ago
    Consider the source. FB has much higher and invasive corporate and government connections who would love to use that data than the SuperGronk "just another app" game company does.
    - r00fus 13y ago
      Why differentiate? I see FB as a phishing exercise, a specific app may be more like spearphishing.
      - rhizome 13y ago
        Works for me. Phishing with a large number of beneficiaries.
- illuminate 13y ago
  How is that cynical? Facebook's primary product is data mining. You are what they're selling. Not your content (directly, at least.)
Sodaware 13y ago
The one thing Facebook has taught me is that I'm far too ugly to use social media.
- largesse 13y ago
  Me too. For me it would be called 'Facebook Homely'.
bsimpson 13y ago
I was interested until I heard they'll be putting ads on my lock screen.
- freshfunk 13y ago
  Time to give up Google.
- freshfunk 13y ago
  Time to give up Google.
uptown 13y ago
I'm skeptical that some of what winds up on the FB home screen won't include some form of advertising.
- doron 13y ago
  This. Facebook has a problem on mobile devices. A great number of users use them but the real estate for advertising is greatly diminished. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next iteration, ads of some kind will pop up. In fact its probably the entire reason for this project.
- jonknee 13y ago
  No need to be skeptical, Facebook has already said they will put advertising on your home screen (it was a question from the press.)
- mongol 13y ago
  You can see an example of it on their page even: http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png
- ville 13y ago
  "Keep receiving our ads, even when you're using other apps." ;)
- drcube 13y ago
  Facebook is some form of advertising. So don't be skeptical, be certain.
donaldguy 13y ago
Is anyone here aware of a "chat heads" like chat UI for desktop computing? Seems like there is nothing about the idea that makes it only a good design on mobile platforms.
staircasebug 13y ago
How long before the app starts showing ads on your home screen?
- jfim 13y ago
  > "There are no ads in this yet, I'm sure that one day there will be," said Mark Zuckerberg when asked about how Facebook Home would make money. [1] [1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4183688/facebook-will-put-ads-in-home-for-android-just-not-at-launch/in/3934953 http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4183688/facebook-will-put-a...
- illuminate 13y ago
  I'd give it a year.
yuvadam 13y ago
Did Facebook just jump the shark?
daigoba66 13y ago
It turns your Android phone into Facebook. I'm amused by the App Launcher description: "Get right to Facebook, Instagram and other essentials". Because the only reason I use technology for social media things... But to be fair there might be a certain demographic for which this makes sense. And in many ways it's a lot like what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows Phone (but I don't know how successful that is). The product seems pretty cool even though I'd never use it.
alaskamiller 13y ago
When you can't own the hardware chain the next best thing is creating a virus masquerading as a platform.
leephillips 13y ago
"From the moment you turn it on, you see a steady stream of friends’ posts and photos." Sounds like a self-flagellation device for masochists. "Upfront notifications and quick access to your essentials mean you’ll never miss a moment." Except for most of what's important, which you will miss unless you put that phone down. "And you can keep chatting with friends, even when you’re using other apps." Please kill me. On the page design: I'm not as impressed as many of the commenters here. It's nonresponsive and requires horizontal scrolling.
Le_SDT 13y ago
Funny how the video contains only women... <sarcasm> like if facebook was the only site most women would go on</sarcasm> :)
- wizard_2 13y ago
  I'm not quite sure what you're getting at but it's weird to me too. You never know what lead to that decision (target markets, promotional video production issues, or maybe they just wanted to play off the "girl at home on the phone with friends" archetype) but it is odd.
  - Le_SDT 13y ago
    Yes I get your point, mine was simply that they seem to really target women, for whatever reason :)
Systemic33 13y ago
Facebook is so obsessed about telling me what my friends do, when i meet them, whats there to talk about? I think we are getting to a point where the digital social networks are ruining the actual social networks; the actual social network is just diluted. Just my opinion.
- Buzaga 13y ago
  Great point. Facebook doesn't offer a lot of value to it's users and that's a fact. "Man I went this place.." "Yeah, I saw it on your Facebook..."
JumpCrisscross 13y ago
In its present form, where I risk my SoHo friends' strip poker party greeting the workplace every time I whip out my phone, Home targets Facebook'a beachhead of college students. Adding geographic and temporal modality, e.g. enabling Home if I am not at the office and it is not between 9AM and 6PM on a weekday, would broaden its appeal.
- covercash 13y ago
  What if it blurred the background images during work hours? Or maybe just images with flesh tones detected.
joshuasortino 13y ago
I'd like to point out that this is the first Android phone which didn't emphasize the logos and manufacture. Most Androids have a horrible cluttered physical design, partly because manufactures slap their logo right on the front.
- footpath 13y ago
  The Google Nexus line is also clutter-free: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Comparison_of_phones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Comparison_of_phon...
InfinityX0 13y ago
Facebook, like Google, has the goal of getting users to use their service more - as they are an advertising platform. Google Glass means people will search more - when they're away from the computer. Google investing in better internet means people will have quicker connections, which means they'll again means they'll be searching more. Here, by increasing the likelihood people are engaged/interested in Facebook status events, Facebook will drive users back to their core platform, whether it's their core app or the desktop version - where they will, indeed, get more impressions for their advertisers. I doubt they are dumb enough, though, to actually do this through the home screen of our phones.
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
Next thing you know, your phone homescreen is showing a full-size ad. Clever.
orangethirty 13y ago
What a landing page. Almost makes me want to start using Facebook again. Now, this is the step before Facebook forks android, and builds their own apps store. And then they build their own signature phone, then a tablet, and so on...
throwaway1979 13y ago
A variant of this idea was implemented by Motorola on some of their phones (which I used for a few weeks before returning it). I forget what it was called ...motoblur? The concept was pretty neat but it drained battery like nothing else. I wonder what the battery implications of Home are.
- illuminate 13y ago
  Didn't the Microsoft Kin also integrate as such?
theprodigy 13y ago
I think Facebook home won't be disruptive. There is so much more that goes into marketing and selling consumer products. Home is a good win-win deal for facebook and HTC. Facebook can collect valuable social data from mobile devices and optimize ad delivery for users of that phone. HTC has the ability to use Home as a way to differentiate its phone in a very crowded market where the average consumer sees little differentiation between different smart phones outside of the iphone.
aurelius83 13y ago
So basically, this seems like a widget to me. What am I missing?
- bookwormAT 13y ago
  That it is not at widget, but a launcher. Widgets and launchers have very different behaviour on Android.
film42 13y ago
The site says $99, however, upon clicking preorder, we see it costs $450 without a contract. AT&T of course says, "*Requires 2-yr contract with qualifying voice and data plans. Activation fee applies." So this cool little idea just got a whole lot more expensive. I say wait for the rom to leak, and then dual boot it on a new Nexus 4. UPDATE: Sorry, I misread, this is just an overlay. Still though, the point still stands.
- twism 13y ago
  It isn't a rom. It's a launcher. You can download and install it from Google Play.
- MojoJolo 13y ago
  Based on what I read, the launcher is not available on Nexus 4. I don't get why Facebook Home doesn't support a stock Android.
songgao 13y ago
Despite the fact that I feel weird about Facebook making a phone, I have to say this page is awesome!
wildster 13y ago
Facebook are trying to do to Android what Google is doing with Chrome to the desktop.
- fpgeek 13y ago
  With the difference that Facebook's efforts help Android compete against iOS (at least for the moment) while Chrome is agnostic between Windows and OS X.
littlemerman 13y ago
This looks awesome.
PavlovsCat 13y ago
Home? Home is where my heart is. So among other thing, that means it's where facebook isn't. Ugly on the outside, even more ugly on the inside -- what's not to ignore, until you burn it down?
volandovengo 13y ago
Just looked at all the videos. I wanted to like this but I'm really unimpressed. I don't understand why anyone would install this. All my friends seem to be using Facebook less and less and this seems to be another way to lock me into Facebook's ecosystem. While they could easily allow you to contact your friends in all the ways which you normally communicate with them - SMS, Email, Phone, the only thing they integrated in was Facebook messages. By making this, they are basically saying that people want something in their hand which provides them random information they can swipe to. People want this random info soo sooo much, they we've made it the home screen + doing anything in apps is the exception.
- ljlolel 13y ago
  No Wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
mongol 13y ago
Ok so now they can log every interaction you do on your phone. Look out for new permissions that you need to change the defaults to, or else your friends will see updates such as "Mongol just dialed his friend John". "Mongol is playing Wordfeud". "Mongol has an appointment with his dentist".
joosters 13y ago
What new privacy holes will this introduce? I wonder if the facebook home will be constantly monitoring your location, recording app usage, grabbing your text messages, etc. Basically, are you surrendering the rest of your phone data to facebook?
- illuminate 13y ago
  At what point can an empty space no longer be considered a hole?
state 13y ago
Could someone who is really excited about this talk about their enthusiasm?
dasil003 13y ago
Regardless about how you feel about the actual functionality here, as an entrepreneur you have to be impressed with Facebook's ability to continually ratchet up engagement year after year after year.
skylervm 13y ago
Thanks for all the great feedback. It's awesome to see how much everyone likes the site. I was the designer and Nick Kwiatek (http://nkwiatek.com http://nkwiatek.com) built it. Elisabeth Carr wrote the content, Peter Jordan and Nate Salciccioli made the videos. It was definitely a team effort and feels great to be able to share it with everyone.
skywalk 13y ago
Anyone notice how the main video on that page is almost exclusively women using the app? Guess that's linking in to the idea others have quoted here about the attractiveness factor of the photos in question.
Cyranix 13y ago
Related announcement @ http://newsroom.fb.com/News/597/Introducing-Home http://newsroom.fb.com/News/597/Introducing-Home (HN discussion @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5493993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5493993).
canibanoglu 13y ago
Ok here's my two cents. -It does look great. But I'm also curious as to what will happen if my friends are not good photographers. How about when they post pictures of what they have eaten? -I most likely take my phone out of my pocket more than a hundred times each day, they got that part right. Sometimes I just use the phone screen to check the date and time. Sometimes to check if someone has called me or texted me/mailed me. If I'm the only one who checks his phone's screen in order to learn the time, then this is probably a moot point. If not, it's going to be annoying. -It's all good and dandy to be connected to my friends all the time but I use my phone for what it was meant for, phoning other people. It's very rare that I take my phone out of my pocket to check up on friends through social media. If I want to check up on people, I call them. If I want to do it over facebook or similar, I use the apps. -Ads. It's most likely get ugly and annoying, fast.
- leephillips 13y ago
  "How about when they post pictures of what they have eaten? [...] It's very rare that I take my phone out of my pocket to check up on friends through social media." If your friends are posting pictures of what used to be something that they've eaten, it's not surprising that you rarely want to check up on that stuff.
tonycoco 13y ago
This is going to be so cool when I hang out with my hipster friends.
jjsz 13y ago
I wouldn't give >1% of my battery power to an app like this, especially coming from Facebook. Back when I used the Facebook app and Facebook it drained too much of the battery. Now if feedly launches something like this, where the photos and content come from RSS feeds, you can sign me up for beta testing. You could take over and kill Chameleon, Apex, Go, and Trebuchet easily.
hoverkraft 13y ago
Does this remind anyone else of the ill conceived Motorola Rokr? http://img.iguor.com/2012/11/112752-apple-ceo-jobs-introduces-rokr-a-mobile-phone-with-itunes-during-event.jpg http://img.iguor.com/2012/11/112752-apple-ceo-jobs-introduce...
- r00fus 13y ago
  How? Because you think it's Facebook's stalking horse? Or because you think Home is going to flop like the ROKR?
fotoblur 13y ago
Doesn't look like its for anyone over 30.
- fakeer 13y ago
  Why would you say that, other than concern of privacy(if at all) and if so, why it(privacy concern) would be confined to just the 30+?
  - fotoblur 13y ago
    I was speaking of the usage of models...of course privacy is everyone's concern ;).
acc00 13y ago
I could not help but notice one of their Cover feed screenshots showing an advert -- http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png . OK, this one I think I get. Why have full-screen standby ads only on Kindle?
- zdrtx 13y ago
  That isn't an advertisement. People legitimately want content from Pages to show up in their news feed. If it was an advertisement, it would say "Sponsored". But yes, ads are not out of the question in the future.
charleslmunger 13y ago
I think this is going to suck. And I think that because Facebook apparently doesn't have any engineers who do "plumbing" - uninteresting work that's necessary. The core Facebook app still has a software menu button pop up, because they're not targeting a remotely recent build of Android. There is not a single jellybean-style rich notification anywhere to be found. The MediaUploadService doesn't stop itself if media upload is turned off, and it shouldn't even be on because android 4.x broadcasts an intent when a picture is taken anyway. As we saw in a post about a month ago, monkey patching dalvik is sexy and interesting to work on - the fact that their codebase is so convoluted that they have to is a symptom of sloppy engineering.
nokya 13y ago
scary.
nQuo 13y ago
A few of my own thoughts and observations. Content (from your friends that you see) really is king. http://bit.ly/10CinIx http://bit.ly/10CinIx
uptown 13y ago
What happens to Facebook when the original generation of users have kids and those kids see Facebook as their parent's social network?
- Buzaga 13y ago
  I've read articles talking about young ones already being bored with FB because of this.. and it only tends to get worse, nicely remembered ;D
- notatoad 13y ago
  They use their existing technology platform to launch a new brand. Or else they just keep buying small new social networks as they gain popularity, like Instagram.
tubbo 13y ago
From the animated demos, it seems like the one thing about Home that Facebook really did well here is the UX design. It seems petty, but I absolutely love the idea of round portraits being the way we identify people who are sending us background notifications.
Buzaga 13y ago
Facebook is so dull :/
wavesounds 13y ago
I think were all missing the point here, there's now a "facebook phone". For a certain demographic facebook is the most important thing on their phone. It doesn't really matter if home is a huge inovation or not, it only needs to be slightly better then iOS and Android for using facebook and this demo will adopt it. Facebook is opening up a new market for themselves and with a phone for $99 its very easy for someone to say "mommy I want the facebook phone" and get it. Soon "facebook phone" will start appearing alongside "iphone", "droid", and "windows phone" as common vernacular. By partnering with att & htc and building on top of android they have now gained access into the cell phone industry with no investment in hardware, cell towers or in creating a new OS, just redesigning a home screen. Theres a huge potential upside with very little risk involved. Its a good move on facebooks part.
- dkrich 13y ago
  "By partnering with att & htc and building on top of android they have now gained access into the cell phone industry with no investment in hardware, cell towers or in creating a new OS, just redesigning a home screen." There's always a flip-side to this argument though, and that is that by not heavily investing, there really are pretty low barriers to entry for other tech companies with means. What prevents Twitter or Google from releasing the exact same thing and then splitting this market proportionally to the market for social networks/new sites in general? I rarely use Facebook so this release has little utility for me. I fully understand I'm not representative of everyone and that there are many teenage girls who will fall over themselves to install it when it comes out. But if Twitter or even Yahoo released a similar product, I have to believe I would be a lot more likely to install it. This to me just seems like a spruced-up notification system for Facebook. I don't really think it adds a whole lot to their bottom line or site usage.
sunkencity 13y ago
Wild Palms here we go.
ehudla 13y ago
Branding suggestion for competitors: "A grownup's Phone" for any phone that does NOT have facebook on your start/home screen.
beerglass 13y ago
I think it really is bad news for Apple... if more such stuff starts coming exclusively on Android, then it is bad for Apple. And very good for Google. (posting this to get some insight, not to initiate ugly debate among Apple/Google fan-boys)
- kgarten 13y ago
  I'm not so sure about that. Hijacking Android like Facebook does it, might mean trouble for Google. Google's revenue comes from advertisement in their products. If you use an app to rebrand the smart phone, so people won't use Google services anymore (and won't see ads), that's very troublesome for Google. Google is not earning money with Android. Facebook is kind of backstabbing Google, in my opinion. Looking at the App, I don't get why I should install it or what the advantage is over using the normal Facebook App ... then again I don't use Facebook that much. We'll see how it will play out.
InclinedPlane 13y ago
This falls into what I'd categorize as "solving the easy problems". It's something that companies do all the time. And sometimes it's worthwhile, but often it means that a company doesn't understand the business it's in very well and doesn't have a clue how to innovate. Personally I believe that there is a huge amount of room for improvement and innovation in social, and when I see a company like facebook merely working on the "make it prettier and easier" aspect I can't help but wonder how long until a disruptor wrecks their world.
starikovs 13y ago
What if my FB account will be disabled? ;-)

Facebook Home

331 points by samuel02 13y ago

Hovertruck 13y ago

Wow, it feels like I'm looking at a product page on Apple's website. Pretty.

koyote 13y ago
Apple's product page is pretty generic these days. This is very pretty indeed though, especially the text over the video.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Is a Dyson vacuum cleaner generic, because other companies have started making similar models?
  - trhtrsh 13y ago
    The design has become generic, yes. That's what generic means: "pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific."
    - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
      So when everyone starts copying the design of this Facebook page, the page will become generic? I somehow doubt that’s what parent was alluding to. I read ‘generic’ as an euphemism for ‘unoriginal’, which Apple product pages definitely aren’t.
- ianstormtaylor 13y ago
  Yeah I think this is much nicer than an Apple product page.

bretthopper 13y ago

Regardless of your thoughts on the actual Home product, this product page is incredibly well designed and thought out.

menny 13y ago
amazing design
drharris 13y ago
Agreed, but it's also an interesting product. I'm around a lot of high school aged people, and they are incredibly social. They don't really use a lot of apps, just ones that help them do social things. Building a frontend around the social experience is a clear win for at least this age group. I could see it being a bad experience for me, but younger people will flock to this. They don't care about Android vs. iOS, but they will care about a direct improvement in how social is treated. I think this is a big win for FB. But yes, very well designed product page, with good use of media. I don't waste time with video, but I was able to catch the experience anyway. That's rare in this age of "spend 5 minutes just sitting on this page".
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
fudged71 13y ago
Surprised they don't have a "notify me on Facebook when this is available" button
gsarrica 13y ago
Yes I agree. Did you notice the clock widget even updates to the correct time in the "Get notifications where you need them" section?
gpmcadam 13y ago
It's pretty, but I left with no idea what exactly the product is.
- ctdonath 13y ago

ereckers 13y ago

Everyone in that video seems to be having fun. Must be good. The design of the production page is nice though. The video mast is kind of what I've been waiting for for a long time. It's nicely implemented.

jechen 13y ago
The source reveals that the video mast is actually an animated gif (or cinemagraph, as these tasteful creations are also known as). The stutter in the beginning kind of gives it away, but still quite impressive they included such a long edit and got it to load relatively fast (coming from reddit where uncompressed gifs run amok).
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  > or cinemagraph, as these tasteful creations are also known as Just so you know, this is not a cinemagraph. A cinemagraph is not just a synonym for "high-quality animated gif". A cinemagraph isolates one moving part from an otherwise static picture (and the assumption is that at least some motion is frozen - ie, not everything that could be moving is moving). It's kind of like spot-color[0], but for motion. Lots of good examples: http://iwdrm.tumblr.com/ http://iwdrm.tumblr.com/ [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_color http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_color
  - trhtrsh 13y ago
    Facebook is calling it a cinemegraph (see the HTML snippet in sibling commment) as part of their comprehensive war to redefine every word in the English language to be something of theirs.
- cocoflunchy 13y ago
  For me it's a <video> element, which kind of makes more sense. <video style="display: block;" class="_534g" id="fbhome-cinemagraph" autoplay="1" loop="1"> <source src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash3/676434/970/135351913305575_544816858.mp4"> <source src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-prn1/676663/942/135351913305575_1958437471.ogv"> <img class="_53ol _53ol img" src="https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash3/676513/617/135351913305575_1421925707.jpg" alt=""> </video>

myko 13y ago

This looks pretty neat. I might end up installing it just to avoid using the abomination that is the official Facebook for Android app.

cadetzero 13y ago

Why don't they fix Facebook on android before releasing a new product? It frequently "shooooops" for me - crashes, lags, hogs resources, and otherwise does unexpected things. I'm very wary to install any software from Facebook on Android.

danso 13y ago

To echo a complaint that is common when designers show off prototypes/imagined-redesigns...what does all this look like when your friends aren't as attractive/good at photography? I'm talking about the Cover Feed function. In the life stage I am now, I'd say that my Facebook Phone would be showing random baby photos 80% of the time, food photos 10% of the time. I'm also curious how that feature interacts with what I've observed to be normal FB usage. When I want to post a status, I post a status. When I post photos, it's usually as a batch, not many with captions. I think that's how most people do instagrams too. So, if you have a home screen feed focused on your newsfeed...how will statuses be "attractive" looking? Using the user's default cover image? But those are extremely horizontal. The only newsfeed entities that contribute beautiful photos with substantial text that are in my newsfeed are companies and brands (OK, and George Takei).

zwieback 13y ago
Random baby photos and food - I'd say you could do a lot worse.
- tahoecoder 13y ago
  You, apparently, aren't getting a whole facebook feed full of baby photos. It gets old fast. People really embrace this whole "circle of life" motif.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Does a picture of someone's feet on a beach with a comment that "it doesn't get any better than this!" qualify as worse?
- ctdonath 13y ago
  Wait 'til the toddler figures out how to take pictures.
tolmasky 13y ago
Last week would have been pretty annoying -- every single little circle would have contained the exact same red and pink equal sign. The image would have been absolutely useless as any sort of UI indicator. Perhaps this will encourage people to use pictures of themselves for their profile pictures? Might be a chicken/egg situation though.

SSilver2k2 13y ago

Link to pre-order giving anyone else a 404?

glazskunrukitis 13y ago
Yep

notaddicted 13y ago

Given that Facebook listed "Mobile" as a major risk to their future [1], this seems like a proportionate response. It seems like every tech giant wants the be at the top of the heap, to control software that is as close to the user as possible. In this case Google Glass looks pretty smart, you can't get any closer than a quarter inch away from my eyeball. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/05/09/facebook-tweak-s-1-adds-language-on-risks-in-growth-in-mobile-useage/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/05/09/facebook-t...

tjbiddle 13y ago

Looks like their pre-order page (http://www.att.com/facebookhome http://www.att.com/facebookhome) is 404ing. On topic - I personally wouldn't use this. Facebook belongs as an app. More integration is (almost) always nice, but I really don't need a phone dedicated to the social network - I'd prefer to move farther away from it.

machbio 13y ago

Lot of False Likes will happen - due to low quality phones..double tap means a like.. it will be the biggest concern for mobile users with facebook home installed

nickconfer 13y ago
I imagine Facebook has already considered this problem and it is not a big concern (and likes are their ad business, so they want lots of likes, but real likes to better target ads)... First, I'd imagine a second double tap will instantly unlike something or something similar to that nature. Secondly, users will just get used to the feature and work with it.

obilgic 13y ago

Pre-order link is broken http://www.att.com/facebookhome http://www.att.com/facebookhome

mamatta 13y ago
how can they afford that to happen?
- trhtrsh 13y ago
  It matches the home page on http://facebook.com/home http://facebook.com/home, which is also down.

dotBen 13y ago

I take issue with the problem statement: "today, phones are built around tasks and apps. To see what's happening with your friends, you pull out your phone and navigate through a series of separate apps." Firstly, the value to me in owning a smartphone and paying the charges associated with it is ultimately task orientated - from running my business, to getting driving directions, to wanting to play a specific genre of music at the gym. That's actually where the value is in my phone. Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want those to become second-class citizens over friend communications. Secondly, it's very hollow to define the problem as 'your friend's activities are spread across multiple apps' when their solution only promotes Facebook activity to the fore. My FB friend's activity is currently only contained in one app - the FB app. Their solution only removes the checking of multiple apps because those other apps (non-FB social networks, IM networks, etc) are going to be relegated into obscurity and no longer top of mind. How's that ultimately helpful to my real, technology agnostic, friendships?

rhizome 13y ago
Well, it wouldn't be very professional for them to just come right out and say, "Say goodbye to the days of checking your Twitter feed separately by no longer using Twitter!"
JumpCrisscross 13y ago
"Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want [task-orientation] to become second-class citizens over friend communications." You're not their demographic. Phones are still a primarily social technology for most people. The most popular features, voice calls, text messaging, and possibly email, revolve around people. P.S. I know several people who friend news sources and bloggers and use Fb as an ersatz RSS feed, mitigating the death-by-cat-pictures eventuality.
- k3n 13y ago
  I think you're confusing social interactions and socializing, which are quite different in intent. While socializing requires social interaction, it's not the other way around, and social media feeds off of socializing. Perhaps I'm not in the demographic either, since a majority of my call and email usage is not based in any form of socializing. Texting, somewhat more, but I do little texting, and when I do it's usually just for logistical purposes -- "meet you at 6pm at FooBar" -- which also isn't socializing.

JSadowski 13y ago

I like Android intents and all, but I think Facebook is misguided if their plan is to release a new version of Home every month. The intent preference is only remembered for the same version of the app... that means if they choose to update the version the user will be asked if they want to launch the intent with Facebook Home again ("Just Once" / "Always").

ConstantineXVI 13y ago
You've got this problem (wether this behavior is an actual problem or a benefit to the user is open for debate) no matter what if you rely on being a default Intent in any way. What do you expect them to do, never update again?
- JSadowski 13y ago
  Not at all... just less frequently
djanogo 13y ago
Facebook already knew this, that's one of the reasons why AT&T and HTC are included in this project, for HTC first device they will install it as system app which will avoid this problem. Collaborating with HTC and AT&T allows them to install 'Home' as system app in future devices, this will allow their app to add 'layers' on top of any app. This can only be done if device is rooted or app is installed as system app.

jordn 13y ago

I think what Facebook are going for here makes a lot of sense. The home screen at the moment is a fork in the road with the choice of dozens of different app paths to take. What they're planning on doing is removing the extra step needed to start interacting with the content. It's similar to how they changed the original facebook app. Instead of starting by presenting all the options of which part of facebook you wanted to go to (profile/photos/newsfeed/messages etc.) it instead went straight into the news feed. This presumably could work just as well with the whole phone. Although my concern is that facebook is only a small subset of my sources of interesting information on mobile. It seems highly limiting for it to only show facebook app content. Maybe there's a possible opportunity for a competing, open 'home screen' app to bring it all in.

barista 13y ago
This takes what Windows Phone did with People hub and applies it to the whole phone instead of restricting it to an area of the phone. Of course people hub brought over people from twitter, linkedin, etc. as well so is much more comprehensive than this.

jechen 13y ago

I have my doubts about the launcher and would much rather have Twitter take on the endeavor given I derive much more utility from its network (highlighting stories on my Twitter feed seem a lot more relevant in practice when it comes to things I care about having on my phone's lock screen), but Facebook did one hell of a job with this product landing page. Props to their design team. (Ah! The video header! It's so pretty! And not a single man in sight!)

eggbrain 13y ago

I think the biggest thing for me is that my smartphone has always been a "private" thing for me, a place where I can choose to interact with people, or spend hours playing Angry Birds. With this phone, I'm forced into an environment where I feel like I need to be social all the time, and I feel that might wear on a lot of people.

buildnship 13y ago
"With this phone, I'm forced into an environment where I feel like I need to be social all the time" I think this was probably a user story for them and definitely one of their biggest motivations, unfortunately lol.
- illuminate 13y ago
  Oh yeah, it's not a question of "user that doesn't want to be social", I'm sure their stories are more centered around "how to enforce social behavior and destroy the concept of temporary isolation and privacy in this particular demographic".
Zimahl 13y ago
I don't install non-work IM programs on my desktops anymore because I found that an 'online' status typically denoted to people that I'm available to talk. It got to a point where my wife was even pinging me too often. Then I just put it on unavailable/offline all the time and then what's the point of having it in the first place? I think the younger generation doesn't have an expectation of non-invasiveness yet. They just aren't doing anything important enough to be bothered when interrupted. I think that changes when you get a little older.
- graeme 13y ago
  "I think the younger generation doesn't have an expectation of non-invasiveness yet. They just aren't doing anything important enough to be bothered when interrupted. I think that changes when you get a little older." I'm 27 and this rings true for me. I use to have IM enabled all the time, and work on some things in the background. That's no good for things I'm doing now, and I rarely chat idly on IM.

tg3 13y ago

The greatest benefit of a facebook phone to me has nothing to do with photos, status updates, etc (although I am likely in the minority). Facebook, to me, has become an address book of all of my friends, with contact information that updates itself when it changes. If facebook replaced my address book with my facebook friends list, and texting and calling to them "just worked", hopefully using facebook-to-facebook over Wifi when available, it would be a great phone.

hadem 13y ago
I've heard others say something similar in regards to their contacts. What do you do when you are not friends with someone? Just curious as I don't use Facebook often.
eggnet 13y ago
You can do that with the current facebook android app, in theory. I haven't tried it, but it claims to be able to do it.
Bramble 13y ago
do you really have that many friends who put all of their contact information on their facebook profiles?

zwieback 13y ago

I wonder if this will exacerbate the problem of people looking at their phones while driving.

jgross206 13y ago
why would it?
- zwieback 13y ago
  Now you don't have to fumble with any buttons, there's something interesting on your home screen all the time so it's more tempting to take a quick look. I don't have a smart phone so I don't know if the home thing really changes anything.

lost_name 13y ago

Sometimes, I hate being such a cynical person. I see what appears to be a fine product, which adds a lot of desirable features for communication -- chat heads look especially nice -- but all I can really wonder is what else Facebook might be mining out of my phone usage that the regular Facebook App doesn't do already. Maybe they want to take over SMS messaging on the phone completely and route it through Facebook (centralized chat, it's not even unreasonable), or perhaps automatically upload everything and let you filter expoosed data after the fact (which is too late to trust that it's ever gone). When it comes pre-installed on the phone, they don't even have to ask for permission for everything.

freshfunk 13y ago
These worries are true for anything you install on Android. This is just another app, just presente differently.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Consider the source. FB has much higher and invasive corporate and government connections who would love to use that data than the SuperGronk "just another app" game company does.
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Why differentiate? I see FB as a phishing exercise, a specific app may be more like spearphishing.
    - rhizome 13y ago
      Works for me. Phishing with a large number of beneficiaries.
illuminate 13y ago
How is that cynical? Facebook's primary product is data mining. You are what they're selling. Not your content (directly, at least.)

Sodaware 13y ago

The one thing Facebook has taught me is that I'm far too ugly to use social media.

largesse 13y ago
Me too. For me it would be called 'Facebook Homely'.

bsimpson 13y ago

I was interested until I heard they'll be putting ads on my lock screen.

freshfunk 13y ago
Time to give up Google.
freshfunk 13y ago
Time to give up Google.

uptown 13y ago

I'm skeptical that some of what winds up on the FB home screen won't include some form of advertising.

doron 13y ago
This. Facebook has a problem on mobile devices. A great number of users use them but the real estate for advertising is greatly diminished. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next iteration, ads of some kind will pop up. In fact its probably the entire reason for this project.
jonknee 13y ago
No need to be skeptical, Facebook has already said they will put advertising on your home screen (it was a question from the press.)
mongol 13y ago
You can see an example of it on their page even: http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png
ville 13y ago
"Keep receiving our ads, even when you're using other apps." ;)
drcube 13y ago
Facebook is some form of advertising. So don't be skeptical, be certain.

donaldguy 13y ago

Is anyone here aware of a "chat heads" like chat UI for desktop computing? Seems like there is nothing about the idea that makes it only a good design on mobile platforms.

staircasebug 13y ago

How long before the app starts showing ads on your home screen?

jfim 13y ago
> "There are no ads in this yet, I'm sure that one day there will be," said Mark Zuckerberg when asked about how Facebook Home would make money. [1] [1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4183688/facebook-will-put-ads-in-home-for-android-just-not-at-launch/in/3934953 http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4183688/facebook-will-put-a...
illuminate 13y ago
I'd give it a year.

yuvadam 13y ago

Did Facebook just jump the shark?

daigoba66 13y ago

It turns your Android phone into Facebook. I'm amused by the App Launcher description: "Get right to Facebook, Instagram and other essentials". Because the only reason I use technology for social media things... But to be fair there might be a certain demographic for which this makes sense. And in many ways it's a lot like what Microsoft is trying to do with Windows Phone (but I don't know how successful that is). The product seems pretty cool even though I'd never use it.

alaskamiller 13y ago

When you can't own the hardware chain the next best thing is creating a virus masquerading as a platform.

leephillips 13y ago

"From the moment you turn it on, you see a steady stream of friends’ posts and photos." Sounds like a self-flagellation device for masochists. "Upfront notifications and quick access to your essentials mean you’ll never miss a moment." Except for most of what's important, which you will miss unless you put that phone down. "And you can keep chatting with friends, even when you’re using other apps." Please kill me. On the page design: I'm not as impressed as many of the commenters here. It's nonresponsive and requires horizontal scrolling.

Le_SDT 13y ago

Funny how the video contains only women... <sarcasm> like if facebook was the only site most women would go on</sarcasm> :)

wizard_2 13y ago
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at but it's weird to me too. You never know what lead to that decision (target markets, promotional video production issues, or maybe they just wanted to play off the "girl at home on the phone with friends" archetype) but it is odd.
- Le_SDT 13y ago
  Yes I get your point, mine was simply that they seem to really target women, for whatever reason :)

Systemic33 13y ago

Facebook is so obsessed about telling me what my friends do, when i meet them, whats there to talk about? I think we are getting to a point where the digital social networks are ruining the actual social networks; the actual social network is just diluted. Just my opinion.

Buzaga 13y ago
Great point. Facebook doesn't offer a lot of value to it's users and that's a fact. "Man I went this place.." "Yeah, I saw it on your Facebook..."

JumpCrisscross 13y ago

In its present form, where I risk my SoHo friends' strip poker party greeting the workplace every time I whip out my phone, Home targets Facebook'a beachhead of college students. Adding geographic and temporal modality, e.g. enabling Home if I am not at the office and it is not between 9AM and 6PM on a weekday, would broaden its appeal.

covercash 13y ago
What if it blurred the background images during work hours? Or maybe just images with flesh tones detected.

joshuasortino 13y ago

I'd like to point out that this is the first Android phone which didn't emphasize the logos and manufacture. Most Androids have a horrible cluttered physical design, partly because manufactures slap their logo right on the front.

footpath 13y ago
The Google Nexus line is also clutter-free: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Comparison_of_phones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Comparison_of_phon...

InfinityX0 13y ago

Facebook, like Google, has the goal of getting users to use their service more - as they are an advertising platform. Google Glass means people will search more - when they're away from the computer. Google investing in better internet means people will have quicker connections, which means they'll again means they'll be searching more. Here, by increasing the likelihood people are engaged/interested in Facebook status events, Facebook will drive users back to their core platform, whether it's their core app or the desktop version - where they will, indeed, get more impressions for their advertisers. I doubt they are dumb enough, though, to actually do this through the home screen of our phones.

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago

Next thing you know, your phone homescreen is showing a full-size ad. Clever.

orangethirty 13y ago

What a landing page. Almost makes me want to start using Facebook again. Now, this is the step before Facebook forks android, and builds their own apps store. And then they build their own signature phone, then a tablet, and so on...

throwaway1979 13y ago

A variant of this idea was implemented by Motorola on some of their phones (which I used for a few weeks before returning it). I forget what it was called ...motoblur? The concept was pretty neat but it drained battery like nothing else. I wonder what the battery implications of Home are.

illuminate 13y ago
Didn't the Microsoft Kin also integrate as such?

theprodigy 13y ago

I think Facebook home won't be disruptive. There is so much more that goes into marketing and selling consumer products. Home is a good win-win deal for facebook and HTC. Facebook can collect valuable social data from mobile devices and optimize ad delivery for users of that phone. HTC has the ability to use Home as a way to differentiate its phone in a very crowded market where the average consumer sees little differentiation between different smart phones outside of the iphone.

aurelius83 13y ago

So basically, this seems like a widget to me. What am I missing?

bookwormAT 13y ago
That it is not at widget, but a launcher. Widgets and launchers have very different behaviour on Android.

film42 13y ago

The site says $99, however, upon clicking preorder, we see it costs $450 without a contract. AT&T of course says, "*Requires 2-yr contract with qualifying voice and data plans. Activation fee applies." So this cool little idea just got a whole lot more expensive. I say wait for the rom to leak, and then dual boot it on a new Nexus 4. UPDATE: Sorry, I misread, this is just an overlay. Still though, the point still stands.

twism 13y ago
It isn't a rom. It's a launcher. You can download and install it from Google Play.
MojoJolo 13y ago
Based on what I read, the launcher is not available on Nexus 4. I don't get why Facebook Home doesn't support a stock Android.

songgao 13y ago

Despite the fact that I feel weird about Facebook making a phone, I have to say this page is awesome!

wildster 13y ago

Facebook are trying to do to Android what Google is doing with Chrome to the desktop.

fpgeek 13y ago
With the difference that Facebook's efforts help Android compete against iOS (at least for the moment) while Chrome is agnostic between Windows and OS X.

littlemerman 13y ago

This looks awesome.

PavlovsCat 13y ago

Home? Home is where my heart is. So among other thing, that means it's where facebook isn't. Ugly on the outside, even more ugly on the inside -- what's not to ignore, until you burn it down?

volandovengo 13y ago

Just looked at all the videos. I wanted to like this but I'm really unimpressed. I don't understand why anyone would install this. All my friends seem to be using Facebook less and less and this seems to be another way to lock me into Facebook's ecosystem. While they could easily allow you to contact your friends in all the ways which you normally communicate with them - SMS, Email, Phone, the only thing they integrated in was Facebook messages. By making this, they are basically saying that people want something in their hand which provides them random information they can swipe to. People want this random info soo sooo much, they we've made it the home screen + doing anything in apps is the exception.

ljlolel 13y ago
No Wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

mongol 13y ago

Ok so now they can log every interaction you do on your phone. Look out for new permissions that you need to change the defaults to, or else your friends will see updates such as "Mongol just dialed his friend John". "Mongol is playing Wordfeud". "Mongol has an appointment with his dentist".

joosters 13y ago

What new privacy holes will this introduce? I wonder if the facebook home will be constantly monitoring your location, recording app usage, grabbing your text messages, etc. Basically, are you surrendering the rest of your phone data to facebook?

illuminate 13y ago
At what point can an empty space no longer be considered a hole?

state 13y ago

Could someone who is really excited about this talk about their enthusiasm?

dasil003 13y ago

Regardless about how you feel about the actual functionality here, as an entrepreneur you have to be impressed with Facebook's ability to continually ratchet up engagement year after year after year.

skylervm 13y ago

Thanks for all the great feedback. It's awesome to see how much everyone likes the site. I was the designer and Nick Kwiatek (http://nkwiatek.com http://nkwiatek.com) built it. Elisabeth Carr wrote the content, Peter Jordan and Nate Salciccioli made the videos. It was definitely a team effort and feels great to be able to share it with everyone.

skywalk 13y ago

Anyone notice how the main video on that page is almost exclusively women using the app? Guess that's linking in to the idea others have quoted here about the attractiveness factor of the photos in question.

Cyranix 13y ago

Related announcement @ http://newsroom.fb.com/News/597/Introducing-Home http://newsroom.fb.com/News/597/Introducing-Home (HN discussion @ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5493993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5493993).

canibanoglu 13y ago

Ok here's my two cents. -It does look great. But I'm also curious as to what will happen if my friends are not good photographers. How about when they post pictures of what they have eaten? -I most likely take my phone out of my pocket more than a hundred times each day, they got that part right. Sometimes I just use the phone screen to check the date and time. Sometimes to check if someone has called me or texted me/mailed me. If I'm the only one who checks his phone's screen in order to learn the time, then this is probably a moot point. If not, it's going to be annoying. -It's all good and dandy to be connected to my friends all the time but I use my phone for what it was meant for, phoning other people. It's very rare that I take my phone out of my pocket to check up on friends through social media. If I want to check up on people, I call them. If I want to do it over facebook or similar, I use the apps. -Ads. It's most likely get ugly and annoying, fast.

leephillips 13y ago
"How about when they post pictures of what they have eaten? [...] It's very rare that I take my phone out of my pocket to check up on friends through social media." If your friends are posting pictures of what used to be something that they've eaten, it's not surprising that you rarely want to check up on that stuff.

tonycoco 13y ago

This is going to be so cool when I hang out with my hipster friends.

jjsz 13y ago

I wouldn't give >1% of my battery power to an app like this, especially coming from Facebook. Back when I used the Facebook app and Facebook it drained too much of the battery. Now if feedly launches something like this, where the photos and content come from RSS feeds, you can sign me up for beta testing. You could take over and kill Chameleon, Apex, Go, and Trebuchet easily.

hoverkraft 13y ago

Does this remind anyone else of the ill conceived Motorola Rokr? http://img.iguor.com/2012/11/112752-apple-ceo-jobs-introduces-rokr-a-mobile-phone-with-itunes-during-event.jpg http://img.iguor.com/2012/11/112752-apple-ceo-jobs-introduce...

r00fus 13y ago
How? Because you think it's Facebook's stalking horse? Or because you think Home is going to flop like the ROKR?

fotoblur 13y ago

Doesn't look like its for anyone over 30.

fakeer 13y ago
Why would you say that, other than concern of privacy(if at all) and if so, why it(privacy concern) would be confined to just the 30+?
- fotoblur 13y ago
  I was speaking of the usage of models...of course privacy is everyone's concern ;).

acc00 13y ago

I could not help but notice one of their Cover feed screenshots showing an advert -- http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/yY/r/fNNR8sV8Y3W.png . OK, this one I think I get. Why have full-screen standby ads only on Kindle?

zdrtx 13y ago
That isn't an advertisement. People legitimately want content from Pages to show up in their news feed. If it was an advertisement, it would say "Sponsored". But yes, ads are not out of the question in the future.

charleslmunger 13y ago

I think this is going to suck. And I think that because Facebook apparently doesn't have any engineers who do "plumbing" - uninteresting work that's necessary. The core Facebook app still has a software menu button pop up, because they're not targeting a remotely recent build of Android. There is not a single jellybean-style rich notification anywhere to be found. The MediaUploadService doesn't stop itself if media upload is turned off, and it shouldn't even be on because android 4.x broadcasts an intent when a picture is taken anyway. As we saw in a post about a month ago, monkey patching dalvik is sexy and interesting to work on - the fact that their codebase is so convoluted that they have to is a symptom of sloppy engineering.

nokya 13y ago

scary.

nQuo 13y ago

A few of my own thoughts and observations. Content (from your friends that you see) really is king. http://bit.ly/10CinIx http://bit.ly/10CinIx

uptown 13y ago

What happens to Facebook when the original generation of users have kids and those kids see Facebook as their parent's social network?

Buzaga 13y ago
I've read articles talking about young ones already being bored with FB because of this.. and it only tends to get worse, nicely remembered ;D
notatoad 13y ago
They use their existing technology platform to launch a new brand. Or else they just keep buying small new social networks as they gain popularity, like Instagram.

tubbo 13y ago

From the animated demos, it seems like the one thing about Home that Facebook really did well here is the UX design. It seems petty, but I absolutely love the idea of round portraits being the way we identify people who are sending us background notifications.

Buzaga 13y ago

Facebook is so dull :/

wavesounds 13y ago

I think were all missing the point here, there's now a "facebook phone". For a certain demographic facebook is the most important thing on their phone. It doesn't really matter if home is a huge inovation or not, it only needs to be slightly better then iOS and Android for using facebook and this demo will adopt it. Facebook is opening up a new market for themselves and with a phone for $99 its very easy for someone to say "mommy I want the facebook phone" and get it. Soon "facebook phone" will start appearing alongside "iphone", "droid", and "windows phone" as common vernacular. By partnering with att & htc and building on top of android they have now gained access into the cell phone industry with no investment in hardware, cell towers or in creating a new OS, just redesigning a home screen. Theres a huge potential upside with very little risk involved. Its a good move on facebooks part.

dkrich 13y ago
"By partnering with att & htc and building on top of android they have now gained access into the cell phone industry with no investment in hardware, cell towers or in creating a new OS, just redesigning a home screen." There's always a flip-side to this argument though, and that is that by not heavily investing, there really are pretty low barriers to entry for other tech companies with means. What prevents Twitter or Google from releasing the exact same thing and then splitting this market proportionally to the market for social networks/new sites in general? I rarely use Facebook so this release has little utility for me. I fully understand I'm not representative of everyone and that there are many teenage girls who will fall over themselves to install it when it comes out. But if Twitter or even Yahoo released a similar product, I have to believe I would be a lot more likely to install it. This to me just seems like a spruced-up notification system for Facebook. I don't really think it adds a whole lot to their bottom line or site usage.

sunkencity 13y ago

Wild Palms here we go.

ehudla 13y ago

Branding suggestion for competitors: "A grownup's Phone" for any phone that does NOT have facebook on your start/home screen.

beerglass 13y ago

I think it really is bad news for Apple... if more such stuff starts coming exclusively on Android, then it is bad for Apple. And very good for Google. (posting this to get some insight, not to initiate ugly debate among Apple/Google fan-boys)

kgarten 13y ago
I'm not so sure about that. Hijacking Android like Facebook does it, might mean trouble for Google. Google's revenue comes from advertisement in their products. If you use an app to rebrand the smart phone, so people won't use Google services anymore (and won't see ads), that's very troublesome for Google. Google is not earning money with Android. Facebook is kind of backstabbing Google, in my opinion. Looking at the App, I don't get why I should install it or what the advantage is over using the normal Facebook App ... then again I don't use Facebook that much. We'll see how it will play out.

InclinedPlane 13y ago

This falls into what I'd categorize as "solving the easy problems". It's something that companies do all the time. And sometimes it's worthwhile, but often it means that a company doesn't understand the business it's in very well and doesn't have a clue how to innovate. Personally I believe that there is a huge amount of room for improvement and innovation in social, and when I see a company like facebook merely working on the "make it prettier and easier" aspect I can't help but wonder how long until a disruptor wrecks their world.

starikovs 13y ago

What if my FB account will be disabled? ;-)