Facebook Home to hit select phones on April 12th in the US

Home from Facebook is a bunch of apps and a replacement home screen for Android phones. Home is an app that will “transform your Android phone into a great social phone” according to the company. Home is not officially launched yet in the USA, however it is expected to be available on HTC First smartphone on 12th April.

However, it will be available on other Android devices in the future. Those devices include Galaxy S III, S 4, the HTC One, One X+ and the Note II.

Along with UI for launching apps however; it replaces the lockscreen with Cover Feed and prioritizes updates from people instead of apps. There are status updates from friends that you can easily flip through. Double tapping it will mark it “like”.

On the HTC First Android falvour, you can get Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook email, info about available Wi-Fi networks. Also on the HTC First, you’ll be able to swipe up to to show your app shortcuts, and then swipe right to reveal a Google Search bar that doesn’t exist in the downloadable version of Home.

Facebook Phone
Facebook Home (source: Technologyreview.com)

So as compared to downloading the Facebook Home app for standard Androids, HTC “Facebook phone” will offer a different experience.

Facebook has created the Facebook Home Program for to partner with more OEMs to get Android customized for more phones. That should help people get hooked to FB for whole day and hopefully get some cash for Facebook as well.

The HTC First specs are: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, a 4.3″ display,  memory (1 GB) and camera resolutions (5 megapixel rear, 1.6 front camera), Android 4.1 with Facebook’s Home software pre-installed. The USP is social integration rather than the hardware.

The First will cost $99 on a 2-year agreement, and is being released on April 12th exclusively on AT&T in the U.S. Pre-orders have started. In France, Orange will have the pleasure while EE will be the first partner in the UK.

Launch in Europe and UK is expected to be some time in this Summer. Pricing and availability information will follow later.

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