TORONTO – Facebook unveiled Facebook Home, a family of apps for Android smartphones and tablets, on Thursday dispelling rumors that the social network was releasing a mobile phone or operating system.
Facebook Home operates as home screen replacement for Android devices, displaying friends’ photos, status updates and notifications right on the device’s home screen.
Rather than seeing a set of apps for email, maps and other services when they first turn on their phones, users will be greeted with photos and updates from their Facebook feeds. There will be ads too, eventually.
Facebook also showed off a feature called “chat heads.” This lets users communicate with their friends directly from their phone’s home screen – without opening a separate app.
Zuckerberg says the goal is to put “people before apps.”
“On one level this is a new version of Facebook Mobile,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The mobile experience is focused around Cover Feed, which shows a very visual feed of your Facebook news feed.
Zuckerberg kicked off the event by stating that the social networking giant isn’t building a phone, or a mobile OS – contrary to the multiple rumors that Facebook would be releasing a phone.
But, the CEO of smartphone maker HTC took the stage at the end of the event to reveal that HTC would release the HTC First, the first phone to come preloaded with Facebook Home.
The HTC First will be sold exclusively through AT&T in the U.S.
No information was provided about a Canadian launch.
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