Facebook just launched their Facebook Home in the Google Play Store for download. Keep in mind it’s US-region only, so a little trick is required.
I have the most horrible experience with this – particularly with the app drawer, where it pulls out a vertical-continuous scrolling bar with the width of 4 apps. It’s okay, but at the end of the list, there’s a button that says “More Apps” and what does it do? Bring you back to your default built-in home launcher. Great job, Facebook.
Links are displayed in a very beautiful manner, with the thumbnail partially showing at the background and will show the the thumbnail completely if you hold your finger at the empty space for about half a second. Any photos shared will be again showed in the same manner, but for status updates – it’s your cover photo that will be shown at the background. Facebook certainly left no space empty.
Check out the screenshots we got from the new slew of Facebook apps below
There isn’t really much to talk about the Facebook Home, but it certainly did shake my mind a little seeing that Facebook actually released something Android-exclusive like this.
Then again, not everyone will like it and even the everyone in the Nasi Lemak Tech team is showing opinions of different polarities. Here’s what we are able to gather :
Kok Kee – As a user who seek the pure Android experience, I feel that if there are no widgets, I lost a limb. Sure, it’s a great approach strictly for Facebook addicts who can’t themselves away from it for a second. As it does offer quick newsfeed browsing but do you really need that? The lock screen is now your Facebook notifications with a digital clock on top. It’s a beautiful app, that I can’t deny at all. But is it practical? No, I don’t think so. It’s great to see what you friend is sharing, but when your friend’s list gets a little out of hand, good bye.
My summary – Facebook home is beautifully impractical.
Amin – I can’t see what’s all the hype is about. It’s ridiculous to have the Facebook as your homescreen. It’s too laggy and unresponsive. Friend’s status scrolling through your homescreen with their picture on the background? Gosh this is a total fail. If Facebook want to make something like this then they should instead, improve their widget first. People like to have their beautiful homescreen to access their apps and having their favourite wallpaper at the back. The lockscreen is a nice idea but I don’t like the idea of having somebody’s picture on my lockscreen. What if some NSFW picture showed up? Having Facebook Home is like you getting stuck in some kind of app and can’t get out.
Alexander Lai – As a heavy user of social media, you would expect someone like myself to be quite enthusiastic about Facebook Home – but as a first impression, this is an app that’s buggy, rough and still clearly beta. Even on my Samsung Galaxy S III, which is one of the four phones officially supported on launch, it gave me the error that my device was not supported and I had to use a workaround. Overall, Facebook Home is beautiful as the start screen are pictures from your timeline. Performance-wise, it is a bit sluggish and while I feel the interface would have been good for an app, it is not quite a good launcher. In terms of pure functionality, you would not get much out of it especially coming from a launcher like Action Launcher. I would say Facebook Home is a decent launcher if you’re a Facebook addict. Otherwise, there is nothing for you here.
Slimslang – The first hour of playing with Facebook Home is purely awesome. It’s a totally new approach to social media, and I can’t deny I was sold at that moment. After use it for some time, usability issues seem to appear. For instance, there is no lockscreen, hence no lockscreen music control, which is a big problem for music addict like myself. Double tap to like seems like a bad choice too, as I had accidentally liked quite a number of pictures. Notification is quite cool to be honest, if only I can view it instantly without going in the Facebook app. Another thing that is bugging me is that the pictures on homescreen seems to be random, instead of “most recent”. On the bright side, chat heads is really convenient. It makes Facebook chat on mobile as convenient as apps such as Whatsapp or Line as user can now reply quicker. Perhaps Facebook should reconsider user experience of Facebook Home as I think there is still lot’s of room for improvement, as the current launcher seems to be a little bit cramp up and lots of pictures are stretched, which looks really ugly.
Do you have something to tell us about the Facebook Home? Do tell us!
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