As expected, Facebook announced a new suite of apps called Facebook Home for Android. Home is not a phone and not a fork of Android, but a deeply integrated launcher app that’ll put Facebook front and center on your handset. It has several core features that include Chat heads and Cover feed.
- Chat Heads is a messaging feature that’ll let you chat from with out leaving your active app. You can preview incoming messages and decide if you want to respond without closing your active app.
- Cover feed is a visually rich news feed that sends your friend’s status updates and photos on your home screen. It’s meant to keep your watching your Facebook feed and not your notification list.
- Apps: Home also functions as an app launcher letting you open apps.
- Notifications: Notifications will appear when something important happens … like a friend writing a note on your wall.
Facebook Home will be available on April 12th for Android phone owners and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. It’ll support a handful of devices at launch including the HTC One, One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, and Note 2. It’ll debut in a few months on Android tablets. AT&T produced some videos showing Facebook Home in action. You can watch them below.
[Via Facebook]