Facebook makes itself at Home

The new Facebook Home screen is both the locked and unlocked screen, letting users quickly check for updates on their smartphone, with other apps hidden behind this home screen. Source: Supplied

FACEBOOK is killing the app.

It's new mobile phone system unveiled this morning has turned Facebook into a home screen, meaning you are never separated from the social network.

Facebook has taken Android's open source operating system and tailored it to make it a "people first" operating system that brings Facebook out of the app and onto your phone.

It's name is "Home".

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that phones today are designed around apps and not people.

"We want to flip that around," he said.

Facebook takes the home screen of your phone and turns it into a visually rich scrolling newsfeed that shows your friends photos, status updates all the time. You no longer have to tap into the Facebook app to respond. You can simply tap your home screen to like a post, or to reply.

The ChatHeads function will incorporate texting and Facebook messages.

Facebook will organise the most important updates to appear on your screen, no matter where you are. Users can hide them by simply swiping left or right, or get rid all the latest posts by holding down their finger on the screen and swiping downwards.

Apps can still be accessed through a launcher that users can access by swiping upwards.

Mr Zuckerberg showed off a new feature called "Chatheads" which is a new messaging systems that allows users to manage conversations.

A small pop-up head will appear in the right hand margin, to notify users that they have a new Facebook or text message. That way, the notification does not interrupt what you were doing on your phone before someone tried to contact you. To reply you can simply swipe left and a conversation box will appear on top of previous screen, send it and go straight back to what you were doing.

"By putting people first this is one of the many small but meaningful changes to our relationship with tech over time," Mr Zuckerberg said.

Facebook Home can be downloaded to any Android phone from Google's app store, Google Play and will be available from April 12, at least in the US. No word on when it will roll out to Australia.

A screengrab of the new Facebook Home. Users can double click on an image or update to "like" it, or move Home down to view their other apps.

Also any new HTC One, HTC One X, Galaxy SIII and Galaxy S4 phones will come pre-loaded with the new Facebook software for Android.

Facebook Home is a bold step for the social network and it's one that was made with the future of technology in mind.

Mr Zuckerberg said that in five to 10 years, people who are currently using feature phones will have switched to smartphones and that we are soon "going to be living in a world where people will never see in their lives what we call a computer".

"Just stop and think about that for a second," Mr Zuckerberg said.

"The definition of what a computer is and should be has not been set for the majority of the world."

"I think that is definitely going to be about people."

More and more we're starting to see a push for ubiquitous operating systems that do everything within the one environment. Google's new Chromebooks are an example whereby it has taken the best features of its Chrome internet browser and integrated it into the computing experience, blurring the line between desktop and browser.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook Home. Smartphone users look at their phone more than 100 times a day, and Home will help them instantly stay up-to-date with what their friends are up to, Mr Zuckerberg said. Picture: AP

Likewise Facebook home steps away from the app experience with keeps content siloed within the paramaters of an application, and makes it central to the mobile computing experience.

While Facebook isn't killing the app altogether, it is definitely taking a confident step away from it, demonstrating that we might already be making moves to a post-app experience.

"Home" is both the lock screen and the unlocked screen - so when a user glances at their phone, they see a feed of their Facebook friends' photos and comments.

Mr Zuckerberg gave an example of standing in line at a store and looking down at the phone to see photos of friends and family. It'll be possible to flip through the items. If there's something you like, just double tap on it to "like" it. You can also add comments from the home screen.

With this, Facebook doesn't believe you'll need to go to the Facebook app any more.

Mr  Zuckerberg said the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing something that's a lot deeper than an app.

Facebook Home will be automatically installed on new AT&T and HTC phones in the US, Mr Zuckerberg said. Picture: AP

"Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" he said.

Better, he says, is to have that experience come right to the home screen, so you're always knowing what is going on around you.

The move coincides with rapid growth among the number of users who access the social network from smartphones and tablet computers and Facebook's aim to evolve from its Web-based roots into a "mobile-first" company.

"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

The move could help to attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects US mobile ad spending to grow 77 per cent this year to $US7.29 billion ($6.96 billion), from $US4.11 billion last year.

EMarketer said on Wednesday that it expects Facebook to reap $US965 million in US mobile ad revenue in 2013. That's about 2.5 times the $US391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads.

Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer, says "there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets make sense for Facebook. At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset," the better.

Facebook's announcement of Home came less than a day after an image of what appears to be the long-awaited Facebook phone has surfaced online.

Earlier, tech blogger @evleaks posted an image on Twitter, with the words "HTC first, 2013".

The image showed an HTC phone with the words "HTC first" emblazoned across the front. The phone contains only three buttons below the screen.

The image came just days after tech blog Android Police published a leaked version of Facebook's rumoured mobile operating system, which showed that the Facebook phone is actually a new home screen which would let users change the phone's settings like wi-fi within the Facebook operating system.

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