Facebook Home is n’t a Facebook Phone , nor is it really “ a bunch of apps , ” or a young operating organization . It ’s an admission : Facebook intend a fortune to me , and is an interesting view of my life — and I want to take care at it all the time , everywhere I go . If that sounds like you , Home is where your ticker should be . If not , your phone will become something you hate .
Facebook Home does n’t do much because it ’s designed to not do very much . When you tap most Android phones to biography , you trigger the information tantamount of someone clapperclaw directly into your boldness , replete with saliva flecks . Depending on your setup , you ’ll see a clock , clouds , conditions , emails , tidings , IMs — a form bubbles info stew . And that ’s the point ! Android lets you ram as much as you want into it .
Facebook says : no more . Stop . It ’s fourth dimension for everyone to chill the hellhole out . Put your widgets away , finish spreading graphics and boxes and whatever the Hades across your screens . You ’re making your phone and your life more complicated than they require to be . Do n’t occupy about customizing a topography of at - a - glimpse inboxes and icon . allow Facebook take precaution of everything .
At least that ’s the auction pitch .
Design & Using It
Facebook Home is mostly gravid pictures with large text sprayed over them . What Facebook spirit to be the hopeful , clamber , most worthful ( and relevant ! ) nuggets from the News Feed are plucked , milled , and smelted into what ’s called the Coverfeed : a graphic transposition of the normal info digest .
Turn on your telephone set . Maybe the first thing you see is three girls in costumes — oh , Margaret changed her covering fire photo to a late party . Swipe to the right . Hey , it ’s Boo the Dog with a friendly message , who now appears on my phone because I follow his Facebook page . He depend furred and svelte as ever . Swipe . Boring . Swipe again . Doug says he had a good weekend . Good update , Doug . Stephanie was at a bar — here ’s the exposure to prove it . Swipe , swipe . A link to an interesting - sound article from a smart Quaker .
And that ’s where Coverfeed stops working mostly as a slideshow screensaver . Click that link , and Chrome pop open , like on any other Android phone .
Double beg your friend ’s photo of an attic to like it . Swipe !
It ’s a dieting rendering of Facebook , thin in that it ’s just one photo and a bowed stringed instrument of words at a time . But it still hit you as tangy and effervescent , with the same Let ’s make everything big and bright ethos that ’s been driving FB sinceTimelinebeamed down . you could still participate , though , instead of merely looker . Facebook is an oily , glistening , fragrant bed covering of marvellous cakes and red meats , from one end of the table to another . Facebook Home is visual tapa . Or something , I have a stomach ache .
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-timeline-review-this-is-the-greatest-thing-fa-5843354
There ’s more than just consuming , because just looking at Facebook news would make Facebook Home very modified and not something you ’d ever desire to swallow your phone ’s screen . you’re able to message people with it , which is far more important than ever talking to them , as we ’ve learned by now . There ’s more to do with nursing home , and your visibility picture — yeah , your own pretty face — acts as kind of ascendency joystick .
https://gizmodo.com/the-best-part-about-a-smartphone-is-never-having-to-cal-5736678
Swipe your small portrait to the left and the messaging menu pops up . Select a inter-group communication — Google , Facebook , or whatever else you ’ve import — and go off off a content . FB , IM , and SMS are treat as exact equals , which is how it should be , because who care about nerdy distinctions between textual protocols ? Texting is texting is texting ! Once a conversation initiate , a “ chat head”—what Facebook is strangely and catchily call it — will remain on your screen for each interlocutor . It ’s a small portrait of your booster ’s face that will remain overlaid against any app on your earpiece , a shortcut that ’ll work you back to your conversation and can be positioned wherever you ’d wish on the periphery . It sound distract , but it ’s not . you’re able to have a whole stack of ’em at once , and it ’s weird and adorable .
https://gizmodo.com/what-are-facebook-chat-heads-5993646
There are other convenient UI touches as well . you may abstract your font to the right hand and the last app you were using — say , the full Facebook app , or Chrome — will re - open . Or , if you swipe straight up , you ’ll pop undefendable a menu of favourite Android apps . Staples like Instagram and Chrome come standard , but you’re able to sum up anything you ’d like .
Like
Facebook Home make your speech sound not palpate like your honest-to-god sound any longer , for free . When was the last time you got a new experience for free , short of virginity loss or petting a dog ? It ’s rejuvenate and insanely experimental , and really cleansing . It ’s nice to exfoliate all the bulk app crap you do n’t really need , but accumulate because it ’s gratis . Facebook Home is uncomplicated — perhaps stupefied dim-witted — and that ’s a virtue for sure .
If you ’re not some sort of libertarian anti - Facebook enthusiast , you ’ll enjoy the pretty - faced straightforwardness of Home . What do you really do with your smartphone ? air texts , find out email , browse the web , and see social updates . betting odds are that you ’re among the billion human beings who get these societal update from Facebook — whose existence has been chronicled and will extend to be by the social internet for years and long time . It feel queerly rude to have FB take control of your screen , to apply it as jump - off decimal point . It make your phone feel more familiar . And as much as this is , yes , about Facebook taking restraint away from Google and HTC and everyone else involve in phones , it urinate your phone feel friendly to you . It ’s nice to have the first affair you see when you sky it on be the face of someone you roll in the hay , even if it ’s someone you hate . rest home humanise the brick .
Above all , Home will make you realize how extraneous most of your current smartphone is . Too much cargo . You really only need a few essentials , and hey , Facebook is here to extend a result in a way that might finally raise its fund price !
No Like
If you do n’t expend Facebook — or if you actively dislike it — I’m not sure why you ’re reading to this point , but it ’s safe to say you wo n’t bask Home . This is for the Facebook devout .
If you are one of these Zuckerbergian pilgrims , you might be dun with theoccasional UI jitter and lags , which are inexcusable even give the mediocrity of the HTC First ironware . Perhaps a Note II will perform good , or Facebook will iron out animations in future monthly releases of Home . For now , every time something stutters , you ’ll in short hate Home .
https://gizmodo.com/why-your-shitty-android-phone-wont-get-facebook-home-5993656
You ’ll also be frustrated with disunited contacts . It ’s operose to apprize the holy union of SMS and IMing when you have three unlike “ Laura D ” in your contact lens list , or five dissimilar adaptation of “ Dad . ” There should only be one pappa , unless you have two pa , which is totally cool , but Facebook Home has n’t see out how to merge its collection of the multitude you roll in the hay with Google ’s in a way that is n’t messy . There will be duplicates . Facebook ’s Adam Mosseri , the man who more or less created Home , knows it ’s a problem . He says they ’re trying to make it full . I believe Adam .
And one last point , that you’re able to set apart for the second but which will rear its caput at some tip : Home will in all probability feature advertizing someday . ad with large , beautiful , geolocated relevance to your interests , certain . But advertizement just the same .
Should I Buy It?
If by steal you mean bribe the HTC First , which is pre - loaded with Home , no , because abode is a costless download and the HTC First is a junker .
But if you have a compatible Android phone — as of April 12th , that means the First , the HTC One ex , HTC One X+ , HTC One , Samsung Galaxy S III , Note II , and Galaxy S4 — give it a dawdler . At the very least , it ’ll pink some of the dust out of our brains , so used to the same homely screens , over and over and forever .
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