Hey guys this is Austin and today I’m here with a hands on of the
brand new Facebook Home for Android.
It’s very easy to install, all you
need to do is make sure you have the most recent versions of the
Facebook app and the Facebook Messenger app downloaded.
Then
you can install Facebook Home straight from the Play Store however I
will mention it’s only officially working on a few phones right now
including the Galaxy S3, Note 2 and HTC One X and only in the US.
So what exactly is Home?
You can think of it as a new skin for your
phone that brings a lot of Facebook features right up front.
For
example as soon as you unlock your phone you’ll see a stream of
pictures from your Facebook feed and you can immediately start
scrolling through them to see what’s up.
You can Like by double
tapping anywhere on the screen which is actually kind of fun to play
with.
When you’re ready to unlock your phone you’ll find your profile
picture as a little bubble.
You can drag left to open Messenger, up to
go into your apps and right to open the last app you had running.
If
you use a passcode lock on your phone beware though, with the
default settings anyone can like and comment before fully unlocking
the phone and the integration is a bit half baked for now.
Unlike normal
Android the app view is still extremely simple with a list of pages
where you can organize apps however widgets aren’t supported yet.
Above is a quick menu where you can update your status along with
snapping a picture to be uploaded to Facebook and scrolling over to
the left brings you to a list of your apps.
Once you’re in an app
everything looks basically normal but Home is still only a button press
away.
Surprisingly one of my favorite features of Home is Chatheads.
These are little notifications that will pop up and allow you to hop in
and reply to a Facebook message or normal SMS and then go back to
whatever you’re doing without ever leaving the app.
Best of all this is
now built into the normal Messenger app so you can even use
Chatheads with a different launcher.
So what do you guys think of
Facebook Home?
Right now it’s a bit basic but Chatheads alone
makes it worth the download for me but definitely be sure to let me
know what you think in the comments below!
If you’re interested in
more feel free to check out my last video going over your questions
including the PS4 vs a Gaming PC.
If you enjoyed definitely be sure to
leave this video a thumbs up and subscribe for more like this!
Anyway
guys I will catch you next time!