Facebook Home for Android detailed at event

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has shown off a new HTC smartphone aimed at Facebook fanatics.

Dubbed Facebook Home, it has a novel lock screen which has been named “cover feed” and notifications, images and messages will appear on this screen instead of a downloadable app. Swiping up from this screen launches the rest of the phone apps.

Notifications are sorted by friend, not app, so you get an alert when a friend is doing something, rather than when an app has something new.

Users no longer have to fiddle about to unlock the HTC First phone, they can leave a Facebook comment, double tap to like something or browse pictures.

Zuckerberg, who unveiled the Android HTC smartphone at a fairly low key event in San Francisco, said it was designed around people, not apps. Facebook’s research shows that users spend 25% of their time looking at their feeds and chatting to friends.

Among the useful innovations is the “chat heads” feature in which people can take part in conversations in their messaging windows without having to access apps and navigate through menus.

Facebook Home, which behaves more like a newsfeed, will be in the Google Play Store on April 12 and you can try it out before deciding if you really want it as the default. There’s no tablet version yet but Facebook are planning to launch a version shortly.

Zuckerberg is adamant that Facebook is not creating an operating system and to begin with only five devices will be catered for, all running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. They are:

• HTC One
• HTC One X/X+
• Samsung Galaxy S3
• Samsung Galaxy S4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 2

The HTC First will be the first phone to come with the Facebook Home as the interface. You’ll be able to get it in black, white, blue and red at $99.99 for a two-year contract in the US where the only carrier will be AT &T.

There won’t be any on the app for the time being but it’s expected they will eventually be placed on the cover feed.