![Do you want Facebook Home on iOS? [Poll]](https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/field/image/2013/04/facebook-home-not-supported.jpg)
Facebook Home has just launched on Google Play, the Android app store, today. Kinda. Turns out Android may be openy, but it ain't easy. Right now the full Facebook Home experience is only available on the HTC First. An almost-full experience, minus the deeper system hooks HTC made for the First, can be downloaded and installed on other Android devices, but only if they're flagship Samsung or HTC phones. And only in certain countries. That means the shiny Nexus 4 I have sitting next to me right now isn't (yet) invited to this particular Facebook event, nor is any device in my home and native land of Canada.
Of course, Facebook Home isn't available for iOS at all, in any country. iOS does enjoy basic Facebook integration, but Apple doesn't allow for the level of system intermediation Facebook needs to make their alternative Home screen and messaging system work the way it does on Android (or at least some Android devices ins some regions). That's neither a good nor a bad thing, it just depends on what you prefer, and you're welcome to change platforms to the one that does things the way you like best.
However, the question remains -- if it was available today, would you want Facebook Home on your iPhone or iPad? You'd get that slick new interface, the ChatHeads, and all the rest, but you'd also be letting Facebook collect even more of your data, you'd be exposing your friends potentially private pictures and messages to anyone within eyeshot, and you'd be giving over the look of your device to whatever pictures were last uploaded to your newsfeed, be they Pulitzer prize material, or awkward drunken swimsuit shots. With cat memes thrown in.
It's clear we need new ideas in interface. The icon launcher has been around since the early days of Xerox and on mobile since the Newton. But are these the right ideas? Is Facebook Home something you'd want to have on iOS?
I've already written a bunch about Facebook Home, but now it's your turn. Vote in the poll up top and tell me how you really feel in the comments below, and if you have any questions, check out Android Central's ongoing coverage for the answers.
Reader comments
Do you want Facebook Home on iOS? [Poll]
Sorry...I have to agree with the majority. I don't care for the Home on the IOS...I basically have my FB as private as I can so no creeper can find me or whatever...despise the fact that we're being spied on to begin with...I don't need it on my iPhone either...
Apple control freak...........They should be more flexible.......................
I HATE Facebook! Why would I even want to see Facebook Home on iOS?!
I think Facebook Home for the iPhone is very promising. Check out this site: http://facebookhomeiphone.com
I have no desire for Facebook to take over my iPhone. I'll leave that to Apple.
So, this turns an Android phone to a poor man's WP? Anyway, it sounds like Siri: Everyone's heard of it, but no-one can actually use it in their language or country.
Regardless of who is doing it the important thing is what it brings to the user. There are some things that are nice like the chat heads while most everything else is a security nightmare. I have a PIN code to keep people out of my device when it's sitting on my desk or if it gets lost or stolen. Now from the lock screen friend's pictures, info and messages would be available. So certain parts are great like the fact Facebook chat is platform agnostic and with chat heads it has a chance at rivalling SMS/MMS for dominance. The way the chat heads work, popping up without taking the user out of their app is what users have been wanting for notifications forever, think BiteSMS. So even if iOS never gets Facebook Home like the Notification Center if it gives Apple ideas for new interface features or changes that's good.
There is not enough words in the english langue to say how bad I HATE !!! FB. I'm so sick of deal with all there BS on my computer . everything your cursor hits. Post to FB.
NEVER will I have it on any of my phones.
YES! i want my iPhone to have Facebook Home! :)
I just want apple to make ios better.
My daily driver is a GNex on Verizon (so not really a Nexus?) Anyway, that's besides the point. The point I'm making is that FBH doesn't work, yet, on my phone. I don't want it to, either.
I saw some early reviews of it, and it really dumbs the device down. Folders are gone, Widgets are gone, "Recently Used Apps" is gone. There's no way to refresh the generated screens on FB home. It seems to turn the phone into a 4th grade toy. The kicker: the "Phone" and "Camera" apps are now buried into the rest of your apps.
Virtually all of these discoveries were made by Droid-Life.
No thanks.
a little too intrusive for my liking. so with that being said....no thanks!
Have they earned the right to have such low-level access to my mobile OS? Um...
No.
Re: "Do you want Facebook Home on iOS?"
F*ck no.
If I want to do Facebook stuff, I'll launch the Facebook app. I don't need to spend more time on Facebook and I certainly don't need it to take over my phone. I can't see me ever wanting this on my phone.
I personally could quite happily live without this. If it did come to iOS I would probably give it a go out of interest but the truth of the matter is that my Facebook feed seems to be filled with suggested articles, apps and ridiculous joke pictures which have been regurgitated a hundred times by different people rather than anything of any interest. Yes this is probably down to the quality of my social network friends but most ARE actually friends and I guess you don't really get to pick them. The way Facebook have presented this service with it's beautiful images of friends frolicking in the sun etc. is all well and good but it is most likely a million miles away from reality. Anyone who has a feed which is constantly that pleasing on the eye is doing well in my opinion. It's bad enough that my feed has been destroyed by this drivel, I don't want my iPhone's home screen to go the same way. Not to mention when Facebook decide to push the advertising aspect of this. Thanks but no thanks :)
No thanks! Hopefully Ives n' company will bring iOS into the present but until then I'm sticking with the icons. I for one don't want 'black booty girls' or some other idiotic thing that my 'friends' think is the rage coming up on my phone especially if I'm sitting with my business partners.
*Ive
I get both sides. I use fb randomly, mostly as a way to keep up to date with a couple of groups (old classmates and gymn friends). I find the current app perfect for me.
But I realize there are users that want more. My gf uses the fb above anyother. I'm sure she might chose here next phone exclusively because that feature.
No. Facebook is already too much of a distraction. I don't want a Facebook based OS.
Not at all. I barely use facebook. If you like facebook fine. but i don't want it commandeering my phone. I'm perfectly fine with just a facebook app. But part of the reason i barely use facebook is i don't really give a rats a-hole about what's going on with 90% of the facebook friends i have. Or at least i don't care about their posts.
This is destined to be a huge failure anyways. All of this just seems like a desperate call to keep Facebook relevant. They're wasting money on an app that's not going get mainstream attention. I just don't understand the point of this app no matter how much I think of it.
Good to know that Android fragmentation is just a myth
If this is fragmentation, then I suppose Siri only being available on the 4S and 5 is also fragmentation, isn't it?
Show me that link to Siri in the AppStore where anyone can download it............
Show me the part of my comment where I said Siri was downloadable in the App Store.
What I'm getting at is, FB Home is a download. Siri isn't.
That doesn't really change anything. The form of acquiring the feature is irrelevant.
Siri is only available on the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad 4, iPad 3, and iPad mini.
Facebook Home is only available on the Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2, One, One X, and One X+.
Looks to me like it's the same idea. Call both fragmentation or call neither fragmentation. You just can't call one fragmentation and not the other.
Both OS's have fragmentation. It's inevitable in any OS. The way you acquire a feature is relevant. That's what makes it fragmented. Siri isn't avalible to be downloaded. FB Home is. You cant download the NC, you cant download the hover feature on the GS4, you cant download the Notes pen app. On iOS this is the same as if you're running iOS4. Some apps don't support this version anymore. That's fragmented. A brand new device, running the latest version of the OS that can't use a new DOWNLOADABLE feature. That's what fragmentation is about. All have it to some degree. Apple controls it better.
You're right until the last few sentences. You actually can download Home on any device (see my comment below) by modifying the buildprop.
Did you really have to throw that out there???? This thread & majority of recent posts have actually been quite civil in terms of OS arguments. Please don't start trouble for no reason bc all it takes is 1 moron (iOS moron or Android moron......I don't discriminate when it comes to fools, I'm an equal opportunity hater) to open the flood gates. Pretty much, don't be a douche
Seems like you are discriminating, as 41BP is the one who really started the argument by throwing out that sarcastic comment about Android fragmentation. Unless your naturally-biased eyes skipped over that.
If I hit "reply" on your post it was a mistake & I apologize homie, as that 41BP troll was who I was directing that comment at.......you just happened to be one of the clowns that took his/her troll bait. Calm your tits with that "naturally-biased eyes" BS, as I hold no OS close to my heart....just whatever works for me. You could use iOS/Android/BB/etc & if your spewing nonsense I'll call you out on it. #EqualOpportunityHater
It's not a myth. It's a myth that it's materially hurting sales. Most android users don't know the concept and don't care about it.
Until they try things like this and get pissed that they just found out they can't use it.
That's not happening in reality to most users. And the fact that you have to say "until" shows it's not happening now. "fragmentation" is a phone nerd obsession that truly shows the difference between them and normal cell phone buyers that never walk into a store and go, "So what about fragmentation?"
Good one.
I also have to add that it is possible to get FB Home on any Android phone; all you have to do is modify your buildprop (something I don't think you can do on iOS).
Already modified to work on all Android devices
http://m.slashdot.org/story/184725
Of course I want it for iOS, well not really. I just want to have the option to have it.
I'd probably install it, play around with it for a day or two, then remove it.
Not just no but hell no!
just to take it for a spin, but I don't think I would maintain it installed. but Chat Heads [lousy lousy name btw] would be a nice feature, that I'd might keep.
Social networks can be fun but I don't want it Facebook on my entire phone, hell no, I try not using as much as possible, I don't want to use it more.
Social networks can be fun but I don't want it Facebook on my entire phone, hell no, I try not using as much as possible, I don't want to use it more.
I like being able to summon Facebook when I want it. For Facebook to be able to summon me is a role-reversal I have no desire to see. I want to keep the illusion that I am in charge of my user experience on mobile devices.
Glad Facebook Home can't come to iOS.
With the offering that is right now, I don't see it being of much use on my iPhone as the Facebook application itself is good enough for my needs. What I might like is a deeper integration with Facebook Contacts in iPhone Contacts app along with a possible screen for stream - I loved Windows Phone for bringing most of everything together in the People Hub and believe that to have been the perfect experience minus a few things with the best Facebook application (WP) for any platform that i've used thus far.
Don't get me wrong, I like Facebook Home but when it comes to iOS, I don't need it unless they come up with something that ties in with the iOS experience without being too intrusive.
Facebook home is way too intrusive. Even the chat heads that sit on your screen until you acknowledge them or flick them away. Why do they just sit there? They should just arrive and then fade away rather than take up space until you act on them.
For home, they are going to imbed ads so that you have to look at them rather than your friends and family updates also apps that are loaded in the Home app launcher and use the phones notifications will feed use information back to Facebook and third party in order to better target ad "content" to the phone. Home invites Facebook surveillance of your mobile activity and they do not have a good tract record of protecting your private information.
As I read this again I see that I sound like a conspiracy theorist but I do not assume the best when it comes to Facebook.
NO EFFING WAY! Facebook is annoying and cluttered. I wouldn't use Facebook Home if they paid me.
why in the world would i want that crap? let's see... i tried fb, then decommissioned my account. no thanks
Keep this off iOS.
I want all "Ive" and no jive in iOS 7
Sorry.
I have a Facebook account largely so my extended family can see pictures of my kids. I don't have any interest in having any Facebook integration on my iPhone or iPad. The Facebook app is enough In my opinion. It's great for some people to have the choice but, it's not for me.
I'm not even remotely interested in it. I think of Facebook as something that needs to be purged.
I might be interested in Facebook Home if it was an app on iOS, but not as something that takes over the entire UI or home screen.
Not really, no! I'll try it out on a friend's android phone but Facebook is fine the way it is on the iOS. I don't even use it that much so a Facebook 24/7 interface is the last thing I need on my iPhone!
I mean it will be nice to have on ios to see if is worth, but if is not, hell no
Facebook Home? No.
WebOS-style Synergy? Frak yes.
There s no "NO!" Emohitic enough to express my opinion on this. All I want from Facebook on my device, whatever device, it either the web age or an app the mimics the web page. When I'm off the sute, I want NO integration with anything.
I don't want facef*ck embedded that deep in my phone, no thank you Zukerberg
The app is just fine for me
No, it is ok, not that big deal to me. just would like some weather widgets or messages and emails counter will be great for me
HELL NO! STAY AWAY FACEBOOK!!!!
I AGREE...!!!
Rene asked "tell me how you really feel"....... well....... Facebook GFY
Nooooooooooo! I like it the way it is. Thank You very much!
I'm not even on Facebook I'm not that lonely. And the morons that say "doin laundry" made me turn it off forever
SMS/MMS is integrated into Chat Heads. Even if you don't want the full Facebook Home experience, I am really enjoying the Chat Heads function on my Note II. I rarely ever used Facebook Messenger, but Chat Heads now gives you an iMessage/Windows Phone integrated messaging experience with an interface very much like iMessage (green for text and blue for FB Messaging).
Honestly, no. It's great for Android, and I'd LOVE the idea of chat heads a lot more if it integrated SMS in there too.