New Facebook Home apk works for users outside the US (Update: Poll)

Despite Facebook Home having been launched over the weekend, most of the world still haven’t been able to get their hands on it because it’s only available for US customers. Fret not, however, as developers have gotten hold of the apk install package and have made it available for anyone and everyone to download. You can grab the install packages for Facebook Home, the updated Facebook main app and the updated Facebook Messenger from Modaco .

If your device isn’t officially supported, you’re typically greeted with a message saying that you will have to wait till the social networking giant gets around to making a version for your devices. Don’t worry though, because developers have you covered on this front too. In the same link, you can grab a tweaked install package that lets you install Facebook Home on your handset, even if it isn’t supported.

We tried the Facebook Home apk on a Samsung Galaxy S3, and we found it to be very pretty, but ultimately just not very good. The new interface has severe restrictions, with a major one being the complete lack of typical Android customisation, such as widgets. It could also create problems if you have a data-capped internet connection, since using it could potentially wreak havoc on your data plan because of the constant updates in the cover feed.

Now anyone can try out Facebook Home

Facebook Home has been very popular. Shortly after being available on Google Play, the app garnered a lot of downloads and user reviews. Opinions on Facebook Home seem to be polarised. The review rating is averaging out at 2.4 out of 5 stars. The overwhelming consensus seems to steer towards the lower end of the rating scale, though, with the app having gotten 1,802 1-star reviews, as opposed to only 672 5-star reviews and 357 4-star reviews.

The biggest criticism faced by the app is that it eats up too much battery and data usage, while at the same time hampering regular Android features such as widgets. A 1-star review says: “The app’s pretty lousy. Causes battery drain, severely hampers operation of your device, it just gets in the way of what you need/want to do.”

Facebook lovers seem to have taken a liking to Facebook Home, however.  Users have praised the app for being smooth and having quick access to their social feeds.  A 5-star review says: “I have the galaxy note 2 it does a amazing job thank you facebook! Keep up the amazing work!”

Some of the average reviews, namely the 239 3-star reviews, mostly seem to have issues with the restrictions on homescreen customisation that Facebook Home seems to have. One of the 3-star reviews read: “Looks pretty. Messenger is cool with that chatheads. However, we should have more freedom controlling what we want on the Lock screen because I want the phone dialer there.”

If you live in the US and haven’t tried Facebook Home yet, you can grab it from Google Play .