4 ms·

Steer clear of Facebook’s Home for Android

62 points by gtani 14y ago

brianmorris10 14y ago
I don't think I could be any less inclined to try that app/launcher anyway.
RexRollman 14y ago
Steering clear of Facebook entirely would be better advice, I think.
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  It's tremendously useful as a global addressbook / Rolodex for someone who's lived in various parts of the world. The problem of course is that this address book has evil tentacles coming out of it, grabbing at my wallet and other items as I walk down the street.
  - RexRollman 14y ago
    That is an interesting point. I suppose if you were using it that way, you could simply just log in only via Private Browsing or via a dedicated web browser.
    - rolleiflex 14y ago
      Try Fluid. It's essentially a webkit-app-creator for OS X, and it can sandbox cookies and the session. It also allows facebook to be fired up from spotlight.
- jyap 14y ago
  Your comment adds nothing to the discussion. You could replace Facebook with any company. Apple / Google / Microsoft / Twitter, etc... Your comment is nothing more than trolling. Please refrain from trolling. Thank you.
  - RexRollman 14y ago
    I disagree. Facebook is a particularly bad company and people should not be giving their data to them. I also think it is unwise to give lots of data to Google as well.
    - onedev 14y ago
      Nice tinfoil.
bpatrianakos 14y ago
All this criticism of Facebook home is kind of ridiculous. It's basically preaching to the choir. What I hear when I've read almost all of the recent criticisms is "Don't use Facebook Home if you don't like the whole point of Facebook Home". Well, duh! Facebook Home is for people who live on Facebook. It doesn't pretend to be anything different. If you're a Facebook fiend you'll love this. If you read HN you'll love to hate it. This software is not bad. It just doesn't suit the purposes of people who, well, have a different use-case in mind for their phone than the people who would like Home do. I'd like to see more reviews that are aimed at those who would actually want to use this software. At this point all we get is "hey, people who would never like this thing, you shouldn't use it and hey let's have fun hating on it". I wouldn't use it. I agree with the article completely but my problem is that the point of the article is irrelevant. Instead there should be balanced reviews that weigh the pros and cons of this software for the audience it's aimed at. This is like going to GNU conference and reviewing Windows as an OS you wouldn't like and shouldn't use.
- tolmasky 14y ago
  Not sure if you read the article, but it did spend a good while focusing on why people who like Facebook may not like it: in particular it is missing a good number of features we're used to in Facebook. For example, I can watch videos in the Facebook app, but not Facebook home (a little strange). Similarly, you can't share webpages, etc. His whole thesis was that it took over too much of the phone while simultaneously not providing enough Facebook features. Seems like a fair criticism to me.
  - bpatrianakos 14y ago
    His main thesis focuses far more on why people who don't live in Facebook wouldn't like this ("it took over too much of the phone") than why people who like Facebook will like it. The mention of features Facebook fans would love was really more of an afterthought than the point. It was like saying "all this stuff sucks but I guess it'd be cool if you love Facebook". Articles like this always seem to be written by someone who doesn't understand the audience of the product. "So while Home offers more of Facebook than you’re likely to want, it gives you fewer ways of interacting with the social network than you probably would like." (emphasis mine) Written like exactly the kind of person I'm describing. I think if it were fair criticism then it would focus more on how engrossing and mesmerizing the author says it is and of course then mention some of its lacking features. If you take out all the love-to-hate-it parts it'd end up being a fairly positive review of the product. And please don't do that, the "not sure if you read the article" thing. I didn't come away with the same message as you but I read it.
Kiro 14y ago
I love it.
OGinparadise 14y ago
"Steer clear of Facebook’s Home for Android" I steer clear of Facebook, other than logging in on a separate browser for 10 minutes a day. However, most people are not like me and they are unlikely to care about the "steer clear" advice. They live on Facebook, jut as most people live online /browser (but use a Windows computer to get there)
wsbail29 14y ago
Hi folks. I'm one of the engineers on Facebook Home (disclaimer these are my opinions and not those of Facebook). It's been really interesting reading the early reviews. I think we can learn a lot from them. The goal of the product is to make your phone feel more alive with content from the people you care about while still allowing you to efficiently perform all the typical tasks you use your phone for. The navigation model is a bit different than what people have become accustomed to, so some confusion is very understandable; however, we tried very hard to make access to any task just as efficient on Home as any other launcher. Getting to any app is just one gesture away: swipe up to launcher; swipe right to the last app; or double tap the home button to bring up the switcher. As user feedback comes in we'll continue to tune our model to try and achieve a nice balance between surfacing social content and completing tasks. Home was designed and engineered by a pretty small team with a goal of releasing a high quality, performant, and beautiful product. To ensure our bar was met, we tried to narrowly focus on doing just a few things but doing them well for the first release. Of course the trade off here is that some features that people value are missing. I hope this first version will be judged on the execution of what we did include as we continue to fill in the gaps in future releases. For anyone who has checked it out so far Thank you! I'm looking forward to making the experience something you'll love.
- dave1619 14y ago
  I think overall the design and implementation is quite impressive. However, the feeling I got when I installed it last night was that it limits my phone's experience (ie., no widgets, etc). So while I can see Facebook Home appeal to hard-core FB users (ie., especially younger ones), I don't think it will appeal to everyone. But that's not necessarily a bad thing if the target is the hard-core FB user. I'm sure over time FB Home will get better and likely appeal to more people and it extends its capabilities.
  - wsbail29 14y ago
    Right on. Thanks for checking it out! I'm looking forward to getting more of the features that power users look for in the launcher so we can widen our potential audience.
kolev 14y ago
Facebook Home could've been nice if there was at least some sign of security. Everybody getting hold of your phone can post all kinds of nasty stuff on your behalf to the world. That's a huge oversight, which made me deactivate Home. It's not so bad otherwise, but having no PIN or password or anything similar is just a no no go for every sane individual.

62 points by gtani 14y ago

brianmorris10 14y ago

I don't think I could be any less inclined to try that app/launcher anyway.

RexRollman 14y ago

Steering clear of Facebook entirely would be better advice, I think.

hkmurakami 14y ago
It's tremendously useful as a global addressbook / Rolodex for someone who's lived in various parts of the world. The problem of course is that this address book has evil tentacles coming out of it, grabbing at my wallet and other items as I walk down the street.
- RexRollman 14y ago
  That is an interesting point. I suppose if you were using it that way, you could simply just log in only via Private Browsing or via a dedicated web browser.
  - rolleiflex 14y ago
    Try Fluid. It's essentially a webkit-app-creator for OS X, and it can sandbox cookies and the session. It also allows facebook to be fired up from spotlight.
jyap 14y ago
Your comment adds nothing to the discussion. You could replace Facebook with any company. Apple / Google / Microsoft / Twitter, etc... Your comment is nothing more than trolling. Please refrain from trolling. Thank you.
- RexRollman 14y ago
  I disagree. Facebook is a particularly bad company and people should not be giving their data to them. I also think it is unwise to give lots of data to Google as well.
  - onedev 14y ago
    Nice tinfoil.

bpatrianakos 14y ago

All this criticism of Facebook home is kind of ridiculous. It's basically preaching to the choir. What I hear when I've read almost all of the recent criticisms is "Don't use Facebook Home if you don't like the whole point of Facebook Home". Well, duh! Facebook Home is for people who live on Facebook. It doesn't pretend to be anything different. If you're a Facebook fiend you'll love this. If you read HN you'll love to hate it. This software is not bad. It just doesn't suit the purposes of people who, well, have a different use-case in mind for their phone than the people who would like Home do. I'd like to see more reviews that are aimed at those who would actually want to use this software. At this point all we get is "hey, people who would never like this thing, you shouldn't use it and hey let's have fun hating on it". I wouldn't use it. I agree with the article completely but my problem is that the point of the article is irrelevant. Instead there should be balanced reviews that weigh the pros and cons of this software for the audience it's aimed at. This is like going to GNU conference and reviewing Windows as an OS you wouldn't like and shouldn't use.

tolmasky 14y ago
Not sure if you read the article, but it did spend a good while focusing on why people who like Facebook may not like it: in particular it is missing a good number of features we're used to in Facebook. For example, I can watch videos in the Facebook app, but not Facebook home (a little strange). Similarly, you can't share webpages, etc. His whole thesis was that it took over too much of the phone while simultaneously not providing enough Facebook features. Seems like a fair criticism to me.
- bpatrianakos 14y ago
  His main thesis focuses far more on why people who don't live in Facebook wouldn't like this ("it took over too much of the phone") than why people who like Facebook will like it. The mention of features Facebook fans would love was really more of an afterthought than the point. It was like saying "all this stuff sucks but I guess it'd be cool if you love Facebook". Articles like this always seem to be written by someone who doesn't understand the audience of the product. "So while Home offers more of Facebook than you’re likely to want, it gives you fewer ways of interacting with the social network than you probably would like." (emphasis mine) Written like exactly the kind of person I'm describing. I think if it were fair criticism then it would focus more on how engrossing and mesmerizing the author says it is and of course then mention some of its lacking features. If you take out all the love-to-hate-it parts it'd end up being a fairly positive review of the product. And please don't do that, the "not sure if you read the article" thing. I didn't come away with the same message as you but I read it.

Kiro 14y ago

I love it.

OGinparadise 14y ago

"Steer clear of Facebook’s Home for Android" I steer clear of Facebook, other than logging in on a separate browser for 10 minutes a day. However, most people are not like me and they are unlikely to care about the "steer clear" advice. They live on Facebook, jut as most people live online /browser (but use a Windows computer to get there)

wsbail29 14y ago

Hi folks. I'm one of the engineers on Facebook Home (disclaimer these are my opinions and not those of Facebook). It's been really interesting reading the early reviews. I think we can learn a lot from them. The goal of the product is to make your phone feel more alive with content from the people you care about while still allowing you to efficiently perform all the typical tasks you use your phone for. The navigation model is a bit different than what people have become accustomed to, so some confusion is very understandable; however, we tried very hard to make access to any task just as efficient on Home as any other launcher. Getting to any app is just one gesture away: swipe up to launcher; swipe right to the last app; or double tap the home button to bring up the switcher. As user feedback comes in we'll continue to tune our model to try and achieve a nice balance between surfacing social content and completing tasks. Home was designed and engineered by a pretty small team with a goal of releasing a high quality, performant, and beautiful product. To ensure our bar was met, we tried to narrowly focus on doing just a few things but doing them well for the first release. Of course the trade off here is that some features that people value are missing. I hope this first version will be judged on the execution of what we did include as we continue to fill in the gaps in future releases. For anyone who has checked it out so far Thank you! I'm looking forward to making the experience something you'll love.

dave1619 14y ago
I think overall the design and implementation is quite impressive. However, the feeling I got when I installed it last night was that it limits my phone's experience (ie., no widgets, etc). So while I can see Facebook Home appeal to hard-core FB users (ie., especially younger ones), I don't think it will appeal to everyone. But that's not necessarily a bad thing if the target is the hard-core FB user. I'm sure over time FB Home will get better and likely appeal to more people and it extends its capabilities.
- wsbail29 14y ago
  Right on. Thanks for checking it out! I'm looking forward to getting more of the features that power users look for in the launcher so we can widen our potential audience.

kolev 14y ago

Facebook Home could've been nice if there was at least some sign of security. Everybody getting hold of your phone can post all kinds of nasty stuff on your behalf to the world. That's a huge oversight, which made me deactivate Home. It's not so bad otherwise, but having no PIN or password or anything similar is just a no no go for every sane individual.