Four weeks ago, Facebook launched Facebook Home, a launcher for Android that brings the social network’s experience front and center.
The company on Thursday invited a small group of reporters to its campus to discuss Facebook Home, its successes and challenges, and what we can expect to see added to the platform in the future.
“We’re at just about 1 million downloads on Home,” Facebook’s Director of Mobile Engineering Cory Ondrejka told the group, a number which he says is about where Facebook wanted to be at this time. He didn’t, however, share how many of those 1 million downloads were currently active users of the app. The company says the number will be important to them in the future. Right now it is focusing on the engagement level of those current active users, however many there happen to be.
“This is the first product for us that has focused on mobile best,” Ondrejka said.
Mobile best is different than Facebook’s focus on “mobile first.” Home is the first product the company has created with an intention to make mobile better than the experience you might get elsewhere.
“We’re doing a relatively slow roll out intentionally,” says Ondrejka, so Facebook can learn from early adopters, and make changes as necessary.
From that slow roll out –- and reviews in Google Play — Facebook has learned a bit about what people love about the launcher, and what’s missing.
“We’ve spent a lot of time digging through the one star ratings,” says Ondrejka.
Ondrejka says there are two major features that weren’t in Home at launch that people really think the launcher needs. The first is folders, and the second is docks. Facebook has fixes to both issues in the works, with plans to release those features in future updates.
During the event, we were given a quick look at what that feature will look like when it is released.
Another growth point for Facebook with Home is its “chat heads” feature. Users believe the feature is great for continuing a conversation, but not as useful when it comes to starting one. To help alleviate that issue, Facebook is planning to add a new buddy list from Facebook home where users can pull out a list of their friends to initiate a conversation.
Facebook Home is currently only officially available on the HTC One X or One X+, Samsung’s Galaxy S III, or the Galaxy Note II. The app also comes pre-loaded on the HTC First from AT&T. Facebook says the app has also been sideloaded onto over 10,000 unsupported devices by industrious Android users.
Facebook Home is currently sitting at a 2.2 star rating in Google Play.
Facebook Home will be updated monthly starting today with primarily a bug-fixing update and is scheduled to receive another update July 11. The features shown off today will be released in the coming months.
Facebook Home Hits 'About 1 Million' Downloads, Looks to the Future
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