MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook announced Thursday a new mobile application for Android phones that promises to “put people ahead of apps” by using photos and updates from the social network as the central feature of a phone’s home screen.
The app, called Facebook Home, will arrive pre-installed on a new smartphone made by HTC, but it will also be available for other Android phones for free through the Google Play app store beginning April 12.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised a crowd of reporters and analysts that the software will “turn your Android phone into a great, simple social device.”
The new software also integrates text messaging and Facebook’s messaging service in a way that lets users chat with friends without interrupting other functions or apps on the device. While phones and computers have traditionally been designed around programs and apps, Zuckerberg said, the new software is intended to make the phone highlight “people, not apps.”
The new HTC phone, called First, will be sold through AT&T for $99 starting April 12.
Zuckerberg said Facebook hopes to release a tablet version of the app in the next several months.
By making it easier for smartphone users to access Facebook’s services, the company is clearly hoping to deliver more mobile advertising.
“The deeper that Facebook can get its users engaged, ultimately the more ad revenue they can get,” Clark Fredricksen, a vice president at eMarketer, said recently.
