The most recent talk of the social and mobile industry is the new Facebook software application aptly named ‘Facebook Home’ which is at present, exclusively available on select HTC smartphones. Extradigital took a look at some of the features of this new platform which is sure to have divided opinion as has every Facebook release in recent years!
Features
As it currently stands, Facebook home is just a replaced for Androids standard home screen and is the first thing you see when you turn on your phone screen. This very fact means that social media has insert itself front and centre into your phone which could trigger an shift in the way you interact with your mobile devices.
The home screen is more or less converted into your Facebook feed one full page at a time, showing your friends recent Facebook updates, photos etc. The aim of this is that you can instantly find out what your friends are doing as soon as you activate your phone. While some may find this quite distracting Mark Zuckerberg stated that ‘Facebook Home was a paradigm shift: a piece of software that makes the phones running it people-centric rather than app-centric (Techland).’
Installed into this new version of Facebook is a messaging feature called chatheads which allow you to start conversations with Facebook Friends. Check out the video below to see whats really on offer.
As you can see, all other notifications from SMS or whatsapp, email etc appear as a banner notification on the lock screen and you can access chat heads from any app you are using on the phone. This eliminates having to go back and forth between applications and makes for more seamless interaction.
Whats more is that the software is currently free; meaning that downloading the app holds no risk to users who will experiment. Effectively, Facebook has created its own phone without having to build operating systems of hardware.
Advertising?
Zuckerberg has announced that there will be updates in the future which surely pave the way for advertising in the future which will surely have geolocated relevance to your interests. This prompts an issue for businesses to chew over. Firstly, if you were doubtful about being on Facebook or any other social media, now is the time to erase these doubts as with Facebook Home, social media finds its way to the forefront of our phones which we use constantly throughout the day.
Future updates will have advertising benefits to businesses efficient social media management is so important, especially for B2C organisations. Be sure to keep an eye on this and gauge the popularity after its full release on April the 12th March.
