It’s no secret that Facebook Home has been a bit of a disappointment since its launch. Touted to be the next-big-thing by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Android launcher has battled with falling ratings and missing features for wrong. Zuckerberg is not living in a bubble, either. The Facebook honcho is aware of the shortcomings of Facebook Home for Android and is working to better it, this time by adding apps like Instagram and third party content to it.
Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference at San Francisco, Zuckerberg said that the company has been working on a new version of the Home lockscreen, the USP of the service. It will be revamped to include Instagram and other third party social content.
The lockscreen for Home usually features a dynamic slideshow of stories pulled from the user’s Facebook News Feed. Even while the phone is locked, you can view stories from your friends and the pages you have liked on your screen. Now, Facebook intends to put stories from Instagram and other social feeds on the screen.
Coming soon!
Zuckerberg admitted on stage that Facebook Home has been “rolling out slower” than he would have hoped. The Android launcher released earlier this year is already fading into oblivion with minor updates spread out over long durations of time. To counter the slow rollout, Zuckerberg said that the initial plan was to release Home slowly through the Google Play store, but at some point the company will be promoting the launcher right off Facebook. “We will prompt people at Facebook,” he said, “You won’t have to go to the app store to get it. It’s not super far off.”
When asked if he thought Facebook Home was a failure, Zuckerberg noted down positive features of the Android launcher and mentioned that the Chatheads was one that was widely loved. Zuckerberg is right, of course, however slightly off the target. Chatheads are not exclusive to Facebook Home but are available with the Messenger app on Android and within the Facebook application on iOS.
He is still hopeful that Facebook Home is something that people will want over time, though. Zuckerberg may not be completely wrong with his faith in Facebook Home. The product could still evolve into an important Android application and with Facebook shooting bulls-eye with its policy towards mobile, the Facebook Home transformation could well be coming soon.