Last week, Facebook sent out an invite to a press event, to come check Facebook’s ‘New home on Android’. The press and bloggers went nuts, proclaiming that Facebook would fork Android and create its own phone. However, if you didn’t wear the sensationalism-induced glasses, it was obvious from the invite itself that there would no forking of Android, and AndroidPolice confirmed it today.
Probably caused by a lack of understanding of the very technical (ahem) term ‘forking’, and a lack of understanding of Android, the press and bloggers proclaimed that Facebook would fork Android. However, the very fact that the invitation mentions the trademark ‘Android’ so prominently is a dead giveaway that Facebook is not forking Android, because those that do are not allowed to use the Android trademark. Pretty elementary knowledge, but apparently not for everyone.
Today, AndroidPolice has a lot more to say about what Facebook is about to unveil. They’ve got their hands on a system dump from the HTC-built Facebook phone, and, surprise surprise, it’s running regular, unforked Android. Instead, the Facebook magic comes not from the operating system, but from the launcher. Yes, Facebook has turned the Facebook application into a launcher replacement. In fact, all evidence points towards this launcher replacement becoming available through the Play Store.
That’s all there appears to be to it. There’s no skinning or anything either. In fact, the image files inside the APKs make it clear you can set Google as your search provider, even though Facebook itself prefers Bing. It makes me wonder if Facebook collaborated with Google on this project – unlikely, but it would be an interesting shift.
All this raises a bunch of questions, the most prominent of which is advertising. Advertising has pretty much made the Facebook application on Android unusable. How will the Facebook launcher treat advertising? Second, privacy. A phone running a Google operating system with a Facebook launcher. Somehow, that just doesn’t sound right.
We’ll know for sure come 4 April, but from what we know so far it seems rather underwhelming. A mid-range
sense 4.5 HTC phone with a Facebook launcher. I’m sure the world will care just as much as they cared about Graph Search.
If you even still know what was.
To have a separate home screen isn’t part of the “android experience”; just like Sense UI is technically Android, but isn’t “Android” in that there isn’t a single phone that represents it.
Android is an OS, but it isn’t iOS, which is notable only in its limitations: that you can’t just use it anywhere. Similarly, a home screen on Android isn’t the default Android home screen, which isn’t the iOS home screen, which is notable only in its limitations: that it’s not just an app which can be replaced.
Viewed through the lens of Apple, which is how many nowadays are seeing it, it is the quintessential Cathedral. One product! Through this lens, even Microsoft is considered “open”. Through this lens, any change to any part of the core Android experience is a fork.
The problem isn’t that people don’t understand the meaning of fork, it is that their minds have closed to the possibilities.
Every time I see a commercial instead of a .com the companies are all like find us on Facebook at /CompanyName
It reminds me of the days when everyone was an AOL keyword.
Every page I visit online has a nifty little button I can use to share it on Facebook in case copy and pasting the link myself is too hard.
Now Facebook can’t deal with just being integrated into the Android experience and merging my friends into my phone contacts, but it must be central to the experience to make violating my privacy more convenient.
Once you get that popular is there anywhere to go but down?
It is all in the name of the money.
Problem is that people are using it and finding it useful, although I can’t understand why. Needless to say, I avoid it like the plague.
Good point. Until they can manage to merge Facebook friends with Android contacts as every other decent app does, they really shouldn’t care about developing launchers… Djeez.
Huh? I can’t recall the last time I saw an ad get in the way for the Android Facebook app. What’s your threshold for ‘unusable?’
(Opens Facebook app on Android)
(Takes screenshot of the second post from the top)
http://imgur.com/NcX5BoW
On iOS it’s #3.
Edited 2013-04-02 14:07 UTC
Interesing, I don’t get those ads here. (US, Verizon, Samsung Galaxy Nexus). I do get “Sponsored Stories”, but those look like regular posts, and don’t always show up.
I’ll pass. I don’t use Facebook, I don’t care about Facebook.
Edited 2013-04-02 13:18 UTC
The inability of the HTC Sense environment (that was delivered on my HTC Sensation) to allow me to delete Twitter or Facebook apps was one of the many reasons for reverting back to a Nokia 6310i last month.( i know I could have rooted the phone and deleted the apps)
I had real trouble stopping my grandchildren from signing onto to twatter/Faceblock with my phone. Their patents had disabled these apps in their phones.
They are like a drug. One little dose and you are addicted.
All my PC’s/Mac’s block Facebook and Twitter IP’s. There is more to life than those two sites.
Maybe you should block the apostrophe on your keyboard, since none of those uses are are correct.
(I kid, I kid)
If I cared as much about blocking those sites, though, I’d do it at the firewall instead of on each device. More effective that way.
Doing it at the firewall is all very well but what happens when you take your laptop/netbook/tablet etc out of your cozy home and into the real world?
Then blocking it on the device suddenly seems to make sense.
Fastest and easiest way is to add it to hosts file:
facebook.com 127.0.0.1
Last week, Facebook sent out an invite to a press event, to come check Facebook’s ‘New home on Android’. The press and bloggers proclaimed that Facebook would fork Android and create its own phone. However, the invitation mentions the trademark ‘Android’, a dead giveaway that Facebook is not forking Android, because those that do are not allowed to use the Android trademark.
Today, AndroidPolice has a lot more to say about what Facebook will soon unveil. They’ve got their hands on a system dump from the HTC-built Facebook phone, and, it’s running regular, unforked Android. The Facebook magic comes not from the operating system, but from the launcher. All evidence points towards this launcher replacement becoming available through the Play Store.
There appears to be no skinning. In fact, the image files inside the APKs make it clear you can set Google as your search provider, even though Facebook itself prefers Bing. It would be an interesting shift if Facebook collaborated with Google on this project.
This raises some questions, the most prominent of which is advertising. Advertising has pretty much made the Facebook application on Android unusable. How will the Facebook launcher treat advertising?
We’ll know for sure come 4 April, but from what we know so far it seems rather underwhelming. A mid-range sense 4.5 HTC phone with a Facebook launcher.
No thank you. They can go fork themselves. *baddumtish*
…so this event has zero interest to me. In fact, I wonder how many Android users are actually also Facebook users – anyone got any figures? The “natural” fit is Google+ on Android surely? Or am I missing something?
The problem with Facebook is that it’s probably quite polarising – if this (somewhat pointless) launcher starts coming as standard on a range of phones (and maybe becomes uninstallable – i.e. there’s no fallback launcher if you decide you don’t like the Facebook one), it could actually have a discouraging impact for many non-Facebook users looking to buy a new Android device and not wanting to be F’d over.