Tag: Facebook Home

You Will Never Miss Out on Your Friend’s Posts With Facebook’s Improved News Feed

Facebook announced today that they will be changing and reconfiguring their website’s News Feed section. The social networking site has applied three changes and aims to supply information about the people ‘you care about’.

One of the main changes to the Facebook layout will be that your News Feed will first prioritise your closer friends. Photo or a Status put up by them will be placed higher in the News Feed so that it won’t be missed out.

The second change is that the rules for seeing multiple posts from the same source has been toned down. This modification has been done for people who do not have much content to view. Now, you will never reach the ‘end’ of a News Feed easily.

Finally, the last change would be that you will see lesser posts of your friends liking or commenting on other friend’s posts. These stories will be pushed further down the News Feed so that you first see the posts or photos of the people you care about more.

The only downfall would be that Facebook Pages may get compromised. Facebook states in its blog:

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Facebook Official Blog”]

The impact of these changes on your page’s distribution will vary considerably depending on the composition of your audience and your posting activity. In some cases, post reach and referral traffic could potentially decline. Overall, pages should continue to post things that your audience finds meaningful and continue using our Page’s best practices.

[/quote]

Facebook has asked Web Publishers and Page Managers to visit their blog to know more about page feeds and posts under the new circumstances. Click here to visit the blog.

April 22, 2015
Facebook Home Now Available For Almost All Android Devices

Android Developer Paul O’Brien, has done it again. First, he unleashed Facebook Home apks before the initial release. Now, he has made Facebook Home available to all devices, even unrooted ones. That is correct. You do not have to be rooted to give Facebook Home a try.

The folks at Modaco extracted the Facebook Home APK file and made it available for all those in other countries than the US.

Paul O’Brian of Modaco found a way to patch the files necessary to run Facebook Home on unsupported devices and made it available for download. He patched a version of the Home app to keep it from figuring out what device you’ve just loaded it onto.

As TechCrunch explains,

All you really need to do is pop into your Android device’s settings and make sure it’s set to install applications from unknown sources (it’s in the “Security” section). From there, you just have to download and install his patched versions of the Facebook Home app, as well as his patched Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps too. Already have those latter two apps installed? You’ll have to uninstall both of them and load up O’Brien’s cooked versions in order for Home to work properly.

That could pose an issue for some of the more curious among you — certain devices that have the Facebook app baked into it by the manufacturer (like the HTC One, for example) won’t play nice with this version of the Home app unless you root the device and remove the Facebook app yourself. Thankfully, rooting most popular devices is way easier than it used to be, but be sure to do your homework if you think you may take the plunge.

Facebook’s ‘exclusive’ product reserved for the HTC One, One X, One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and Note 2 debuted in the Play store on 13th of April, 2013 and has garnered a lackluster two-and-a-half stars rating with near 2 thousand votes.

This news should come as a blow to HTC, which released the HTC First, a phone which supposedly was a part of the select group of devices destined to get Facebook Home.

For more details on how to download and install this APK file, head over to Modaco.

[Modaco, TechCrunch]

April 13, 2013
Facebook Home Available On The Google Play Store, US Only For Now

Facebook Home has officially launched on the Google Play Store. After some leaks and the update of the Messenger app which included the Chatheads feature, Facebook Home is now available for download, for the US only for now.

Facebook Home currently supports installation on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3, and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Once you’re able to get your hands on an HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4, those models will support Home, as well.

In case you missed it, Facebook Home is essentially a launcher that turns your phone into an all-encompassing Facebook device. Cover feed is a feature that places your friends status and posts in the center of your screen, and Chat Heads is essentially a redesigned Messenger that displays a floating chat window when using other apps.

Facebook’s Messenger app for Android was updated this morning with the Chat Head feature, which is available for any device that can run the Facebook Messenger app.

People have raised concerns about privacy and security with Facebook Home, questioning the company about data collection and the decision to create a default setting where a Home-loaded phone provides access to a Facebook account on the lockscreen.

For what it’s worth, Facebook’s chief privacy officer of policy Erin Egan and chief privacy officer of products Michael Richter responded to some of those queries in a joint blog post, stating that Facebook Home does not compromise privacy.

[PCMag]

April 13, 2013
Facebook Home Beta Leaks Ahead Of Official Release

Do you want to give Facebook Home a try a few days before its official release? A beta has been leaked by the folks at MoDaCo and, while not all the features work, it’s a great opportunity to see what all the fuss is/may be about. That said, MoDaCo says that it will work on any Android device that meets that specification.

The “suite” involves updated versions of the Facebook app, Facebook Messenger and the Home launcher APK itself, the former two of which can be safely installed over your current versions. It’s important to note that the leaked version only supports devices with a maximum resolution of 1280×768, which precludes the Sony Xperia ZL and upcoming HTC One (for now).

It appears that the most intriguing part of Facebook Home, Chat Heads, has not been implemented in this beta version, but the Cover Feed sequence works quite well. The Facebook Home settings is also worth digging into, as it allows you to alter how frequently the fore- and background data is updated. By default, background data (the stuff inside the Facebook app) is updated every 30 minutes, while the Cover Feed content is updated every 15 minutes. We’ll be curious to see whether those aggressive settings negatively affect battery life going forward.

The Home launcher is also surprisingly smooth, and feels like a very natural extension of my workflow. The main issue we have is that Facebook attempts to bury as much of Android’s legacy functionality as possible; you must swipe down from the top of the screen to expose the notification bar and then again to expand it; and there are no spots for native Android widgets. As someone who relies on both features pretty extensively — as I’m sure most users do — this is going to be something of an issue.

Nevertheless, Home is an interesting first step towards a fully-formed Facebook experience on Android, for better or worse.

Head to MoDaCo to download the three necessary APKs.

[MoDoCa, The Verge]

April 8, 2013
Facebook Addresses Facebook Home Privacy Concerns

It seems that each time Facebook redesigns its News Feed, an entire swath of the Internet comes out and swears that they’ll never use Facebook again. But then, active users just increase more and more. But with Facebook Home, it’s a little different. Analysts and users alike have been asking Facebook for more clarity on what Home means for privacy — particularly for those who go with an HTC First, where there’s really no avoiding the Facebook connection.

Now Facebook has posted a Q&A on its website about the privacy implications of its new Facebook Home software for Android phones, though it was unclear if it has addressed all the concerns raised.

In a blog post Friday, the company said it had received “a few questions about how Home works with privacy.” It then posed several questions to itself about Home and privacy and answered them.

Home is essentially a software wrapper for Android smartphones that modifies the home screen, among other things, to put Facebook photos and messages front and center. It was announced on Thursday.

First of all, Facebook notes, Home is a completely optional experience. People have to install it to use it and they continue to use the regular Facebook app if they don’t like or want Home. That’s probably going to stay true for the mid-term future at least.

They can also uninstall Home or disable individual features. For example, Facebook says Home can be turned off in the “Home Settings.”

It’s unclear whether that means all “Home” features will be disabled leaving you with the core Facebook app functionality without actually uninstalling Home or whether this disables things like the Cover feed on the homescreen and that’s it.

The data use policy states that the data Facebook collects can include Internet Protocol addresses and a user’s location. “For example, we may get your GPS or other location information so we can tell you if any of your friends are nearby.”

It was not clear from Facebook’s post whether Home collects location data any more frequently than does the Facebook mobile app, and Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a question about that sent late on Friday.

Facebook has riled users in the past with respect to their privacy. Last year it settled a class-action lawsuit over a feature called Sponsored Stories, which used people’s photographs to suggest that they were endorsing companies’ products.

[PCWorld]

April 6, 2013
Facebook ‘Home’ App Suite For Android Announced, Available April 12

Facebook has announced, as expected, a suite of apps and Android launcher called Home. Its main tenet is called CoverFeed that uses photos to connect people, apps and data in a single place. According to Facebook, the app is used three times more than any other Android app on average; users are inside the app for an average of 30 minutes per day.

Unlike previous rumours, Facebook will not be releasing its own phone, nor will it be “forking” Android to its own version. Instead, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook wanted to use Android’s inherent openness and flexibility to its advantage. Home sits atop your current Android operating system, regardless of manufacturer or version.

Home is also a suite of apps, combining the launcher, the Facebook app itself and Messenger, which now combines SMS and private messages into one app. There’s a “clean, simple” app launcher, so your previous workflow is still available. Facebook doesn’t want to prevent you from using apps, but its people-first integration is paramount.

In addition to the lock screen experience, Facebook Home includes a feature called “chat heads,” a messaging interface that uses chat partners’ faces as tabs for their messaging windows. When a user is in any app, a “chat head” can appear off to the side of the screen. Users can tap the icon to enter the conversation and then swipe upward to take the messaging interface off the screen and return to the app they were in before. Both SMS and Facebook messages can use the “chat head” alert.

Home will be available to existing Facebook users who have the latest version of Facebook and Messenger. You’ll be prompted to download it in the coming days. Home will be available as a launcher replacement, which can be deleted and replaced with your favourite launcher going forward.

It will also be available for tablets in the coming months; the initial version will be offered only on phones. The initial rollout will be limited to the HTC One, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S4, HTC One X and One X+.

The app will eventually expand to work with a number of new devices, but it’s going to be Android 4.0+, which will help long-term performance.

HTC has also announced the First device in four colours today. More on that developing.

Facebook Home can be downloaded from the Google Play store starting April 12.

April 5, 2013
Watch The Facebook “New Home On Android” Event Live

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take the stage in Menlo Park, Calif., this morning (evening for us Indians) to show off his company’s “new home on Android,” and you can watch a live stream of the event in the widget below.

In just a few hours from now, the social networking giant Facebook will unveil it’s “new home on Android”, but thanks to all the leaks we’ve got till now, we already have an idea of what it might be like.

Yesterday, we saw a rendered imaged, which showed us a glimpse of the HTC-manufactured Facebook phone, the HTC First and today, a new set of leaked images from 9to5Google shows how the Facebook Home might be like.

The video should auto-play shortly.

Join us here for the live streaming of the event.

April 4, 2013
Facebook Modded Android OS To Be Called “Facebook Home”

Facebook is set to unveil something Android-related on Thursday. Some think it is a Facebook phone, others a forked version of Android with the social network’s paw prints all over it.

According to a few new specks of leaked data, it looks to be a bit of both. Facebook will unveil an HTC-built “Myst” device, recently leaked as a 4.3-inch smartphone roughly the same size as the the iPhone 5. The entire experience, which includes a new version of the official Facebook app, as well as custom Messenger and Contacts apps specially designed to integrate with Android, will also be available.

Evleaks, the often-correct source behind many previous leaks, posted a blurb from a device that doesn’t yet have the updated app: “The version of Facebook for Android currently on this device needs to be upgraded to support Facebook Home.”

Facebook Home. Seems fairly plausible. Facebook also put out a version of Messenger a few months ago that integrated with the SMS data for a few supported devices. While it never really broadcast that feature to the world, it gives us pause now; could it have been due to the eventual integration with a Facebook-centric device?

There is obviously no way to authenticate these reports, but they do seem to make sense. Earlier reports have also added that HTC isn’t going to be the only manufacturer to launch Android phone with “Facebook Home.” Apparently, the social giant is in talks with other companies too.

[EVLeaks, 9to5 Google, MobileSyrup]

April 1, 2013