Today at its Menlo Park Headquarters in California, Facebook detailed new features that the first update of Facebook Home is going to bring. Previously the social networking giant had confirmed that Facebook Home’s first update will be releasing in May. […]
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Facebook Home was launched with much fanfare, the initial hype saw it being downloaded on supported devices over 500,000 times in a single week. Since then, it seems like Facebook Home’s popularity has substantially declined. Most users who downloaded it left one-star reviews on Google Play, as they weren’t impressed by its functionality. The social networking giant launched its latest software offering with HTC First, which is the first smartphone to ship with Home pre-installed. This is probably why its often referred to as the ‘Facebook Phone.’ The device is AT&T exclusive for now, it was originally $99.99 on contract, now its virtually free, going for just $0.99. That’s less than what most apps cost!
AT&T hasn’t revealed why it has made HTC First virtually free on contract, but it can be assumed that most customers won’t be willing to purchase the device considering that $99.99 up front gets them the likes of 16GB iPhone 4S, HTC 8X or the Galaxy S3. AT $0.99 the handset is a steal, and given how Facebook Home can be deactivated, customers are ultimately left with a mid-range LTE compatible smartphone that has a 4.3 inch display. Is the price compelling enough for you to pick one up on contract?
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A couple of weeks ago we reported about a mysterious HTC device that had been spotted in the Chinese phone database, the model carried a HTC 606W moniker. It was believed that this particular smartphone is going to be HTC M4 which ships without Facebook Home pre-installed, but its not. This device is expected to be released only in the Chinese market but in the U.S. it would definitely make for a good mid-range device. Now yet another unreleased HTC phone has showed up in China’s database.
It bears striking resemblance to the HTC One SV and carries the 608t moniker. It is rumored that HTC 608t, though this is not going to be its public name, is going to be powered by a quadcore processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will have an 8 megapixel camera on the back. Once again, it can’t be said for sure if the 608t will be launched stateside, for all we know it could be limited to the Chinese smartphone market. While the 606W is a mid-range device, the 608t offers greater hardware and better sound through a pair of speakers at the front. There’s no word as yet regarding its launch in U.S. or even China for that matter.
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Facebook Home for Android was launched to much fanfare, though it hasn’t received the best of reviews so far. Regardless of the fact that it was downloaded half a million times in the first week alone, its popularity on Google Play Store has reportedly dipped, with most of the downloaders leaving a one-star review. That hasn’t stopped Google from praising Home, first it was Eric Schmidt who said that Facebook Home is a testament to the openness of Android. Now Android Design Head, Matias Durate, is singing its praises.
He says that Facebook Home shows an “incredible amount of polish” and that it has a superb attention to design detail. Durate says that Home does a pretty good job of expressing the Facebook experience, though there’s a lot of Google design experience with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in it as well. He also added that it does not bother him that Facebook Home takes over Android’s homescreen, as the platform’s openness allows that. Since Home does not alter the underlying core Android OS in any way, it isn’t exactly squatting on Google’s own user experience innovations. Users can choose whether or not they want to use the stock Android homescreen on their devices.
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Google has quietly tweaked its Play store policies to prevent apps like Facebook Home from updating on Android devices without going through the official method. The change, which coincides with Facebook directly tweaking its social homescreen replacement rather than pushing out an update through the Google Play store, adds a new proviso which forbids any circuitous attempts to “modify, replace or update” code.
The change joins existing prohibitions on apps that secretly download other software from outside of the Play store, but has the impact of specifically blocking Facebook’s tests with unofficial updates. The social site had been trialling a system whereby some Facebook Home users would be prompted to install a beta version for limited testing, with that beta delivered to the device directly rather than via Play.
Users would have to agree to the update, which was not downloaded automatically, and it was apparently only loaded to a device over a WiFi connection, not cellular data. Although not contrary to Google’s rules at the time, the idea of developers bypassing the market unsurprisingly didn’t go down well with the search company.
“An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play’s update mechanism” Google Play Developer Content Policy
Facebook is yet to comment on the changes, which are part of Google’s “Dangerous Products” section of the policy. There’s more on Facebook Home in our full review.
Update: Google tells us that the following explanation was added to the Android Developers Console with regards to the policy update:
“Google Play Program Policies have been updated. See “Content Policies” section, which clarifies that “An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play’s update mechanism.” Google Play is a trusted source for Android application downloads, and we are committed to providing a secure and consistent experience”
[via The Verge]
Google blocks non-Play Android updates in Facebook Home snub is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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When Facebook announced Home, it touted the software as its “new home on Android.” While it does not alter the core Android OS in any way, Facebook Home provides users with an experience that is people-centric. There was a lot of initial excitement which led to Facebook Home being downloaded more than 500,000 times in the first week alone. However according to a new research, Home’s popularity is declining and it could take a significant amount of time before its next 500,000 downloads.
BTIG conducted the research, and with data coming from AppAnnie, it states that Facebook Home’s ranking fell from No. 50 on the Play Store to No. 130 in under a week. Despite the fact that Facebook has been using a variety of ways to garner interest in Home, most users who downloaded it from Play Store have left negative reviews. Almost half of all reviews have given the software a one-star review. Perhaps Facebook will be able to turn it around, since they’ll be releasing updates for Home each month. The first Facebook Home update has been confirmed for mid-May. Have you used Home? What are your thoughts about it?
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One of the more quirky features that Facebook Home brought to the social network is that while chatting with your friends, you can send them “stickers”, which are basically large and funny emoticons to express how you are feeling, or simply just to annoy your friends, similar to the stickers found on other chat apps such as LINE. In any case it seems that these stickers are not as readily available to all users yet and if you’re using Facebook Messenger on your Android phone and you want to access these stickers, the folks at Droid Sans, a Thai-based Android community, have found a way to enable these stickers. Facebook will eventually make all these stickers available to all of its users in due time, but for those who cannot wait and want to start sending them to friends, head on over to the link in the source below for the instructions!
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Facebook Home users are having a lot of problems with the social giant’s Android takeover. Here are biggest criticisms.
Unlike the entertaining and lively Chatheads the ad recommend we put on our Facebook Home screens, we don’t get to choose floating family members. It’s a dystopian situation when everyone matches our interests and we don’t feel obliged to try …
The UI and home screens usually offered by manufacturers tend to be less than ideal, which might explain the popularity in alternative launchers and ROMs that completely replaces an Android phone’s UI. Thankfully Facebook’s own launcher, Facebook Home, was a surprisingly clean interface which saw deep integration with the social network’s website and its features. Considering that many people already use Facebook and its app, would they be just as quick to adopt the launcher?
Well according to the figures (via Benedict Evans), it seems that Facebook Home has managed to be downloaded over 500,000 times a little over a week since it was launched. However despite the high number of downloads, the app currently sits at the 2-star mark based on the 11,000+ ratings, with more than half of those ratings being 1-starred. Personally I have yet to try the launcher myself, but based on what I’ve seen it does look good, but then again its performance could be an entirely different story, but what do you guys think? Are you impressed by Facebook Home, or are you, like them majority of raters on Google Play, largely unimpressed by Facebook’s efforts?
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