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Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

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Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#111

Post by bookwormAT »

pifflesnort wrote: post #44
51Cards wrote: post #5

My initial thoughts (without having a ton of time to really absorb this yet) is that Apple's closed operating system may have just become a liability. The open 'intent' model of Android is really at the core of making something like this possible. In turn though does this also allow Facebook to take over "too many" aspects of Android and cut into Google's revenue streams as well? All things I'm still pondering. As an…

I'd call the inability for Facebook to usurp control over Apple's vertically integrated platform to be a market advantage, not a liability, as long as too many users don't start clamoring for a facebook-iphone. [edit] Remember browser toolbars? Now that Facebook is doing this, I expect this is just the beginning.

android homescreens behave very differently than browser toolbars do. You can not set a homescreen secretly or in the background, and you can only have a single home screen set at any given time.

If the user decides to install a homescreen, and he does not like it, He will simply uninstall the app.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#112

Post by wutbrodo »

ryanhandby wrote: post #15

Before we all "lose our minds" keep in mind, FB is a slow player. There will be something, an extension of this that im sure will be simply awesome.

Are they a slow player? I can't think of many examples of them doing something that seemed like they were playing the long game (this is no doubt in part due to the fact that they're relatively young as a company).

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#113

Post by bookwormAT »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #101
slouch wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think a launcher app like Facebook home can be associated with the Android home button automatically when it is installed, so the browser toolbar comparison isn't perfect.

I don't think I understand. You can install different home apps, and you can select which one will launch when you hit the home button. I do this, often.

"(Although resetting a default once you've chosen it could be made a lot easier)"

I imagine most customers reset the default simply by uninstalling the new launcher. The way through the app settings is really well hidden.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#114

Post by brian_cloutier »

gknoy wrote: post #102
wvenable wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was definitely a conscious design decision. It's basically the intent of what happens when you press the Home button. The UI for the end-user is identical as for every other intent (and managed the same way in the settings). If you install a new application that handles the Home intent, the next time you press the Home button you get the usual "What app do you want to use to handle this" dialog with the "Just once…

More importantly, if I've selected "Always", how do I change it back to the old way later? Are intents something I can access and change in the normal system settings?

Well, there's still a pain point there. To change it back to the old way you have to go to settings, then hit "Apps", then scroll to find the home screen app you no longer want, then hit its "Clear Defaults" button.

There's never any text that explains "this will let you choose a homescreen again", or really anything that will help you know to look for the Clear Defaults button.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#115

Post by jboggan »

arnorhs wrote: post #79
jboggan wrote: post #42

I only want this if Zuck's smiling face is at the bottom center of my phone, all the time. Still, does Facebook having more integration into every aspect of our digital experience really improve our quality of life? I feel like we are already well into an uncanny valley of Facebook saturation.

I guess you could change your facebook profile photo to be Mark's face. To your question it comes down to whether or not you feel like Facebook improves our quality of life, and whether or not its effects are not already maximized. If you answer yes to both those questions, having Facebook more deeply integrated into your phone might help to maximize the benefits. Also, if you spend 90% of your time on your phone on…

I just want an app that actually makes me the person I appear to be on Facebook.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#116

Post by pifflesnort »

bookwormAT wrote: post #111
pifflesnort wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd call the inability for Facebook to usurp control over Apple's vertically integrated platform to be a market advantage, not a liability, as long as too many users don't start clamoring for a facebook-iphone. [edit] Remember browser toolbars? Now that Facebook is doing this, I expect this is just the beginning.

android homescreens behave very differently than browser toolbars do. You can not set a homescreen secretly or in the background, and you can only have a single home screen set at any given time. If the user decides to install a homescreen, and he does not like it, He will simply uninstall the app.

> You can not set a homescreen secretly or in the background, and you can only have a single home screen set at any given time.

A great many toolbars aren't "secret", they just engage in indirection to trick users into agreeing to installing them.

> If the user decides to install a homescreen, and he does not like it, He will simply uninstall the app.

Assuming the user even remotely understands what happened.

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#117

Post by BHSPitMonkey »

brian_cloutier wrote: post #114
gknoy wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More importantly, if I've selected "Always", how do I change it back to the old way later? Are intents something I can access and change in the normal system settings?

Well, there's still a pain point there. To change it back to the old way you have to go to settings, then hit "Apps", then scroll to find the home screen app you no longer want, then hit its "Clear Defaults" button. There's never any text that explains "this will let you choose a homescreen again", or really anything that will help you know to look for the Clear Defaults button.

Uninstalling it will also accomplish this, which I expect most people will do if they want to get rid of it. I do agree that it should be more straightforward within Settings, though; It would be nice to go to Settings > Home Screen and have the first option be something like "Choose which Home Screen software to use".

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#119

Post by mik3y »

Shooti wrote: post #97
mik3y wrote: post #11

Setting aside the Launcher replacement, the most technically surprising aspect of this demo was the messaging app: it showed avatars and a messaging window hovering above the currently-focused app. As far as I know, this isn't possible on stock Android. You can make a non-fullscreen window, but you can't continue to interact with the layer behind it. This may be the motivation for the "set of OEM guidelines" Mark ver…

It's perfectly possible. They're doing it by setting the window type as TYPE_SYSTEM_ALERT, and then switching it to TYPE_SYSTEM_OVERLAY as needed. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/WindowMa...

Learn something new every day; thanks!

Re: Facebook Announces “Home”, A Homescreen Replacement For Standard Android

#120

Post by MatthewPhillips »

brian_cloutier wrote: post #114
gknoy wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More importantly, if I've selected "Always", how do I change it back to the old way later? Are intents something I can access and change in the normal system settings?

Well, there's still a pain point there. To change it back to the old way you have to go to settings, then hit "Apps", then scroll to find the home screen app you no longer want, then hit its "Clear Defaults" button. There's never any text that explains "this will let you choose a homescreen again", or really anything that will help you know to look for the Clear Defaults button.

I've always had a ton of problems with defaults and intents. To this day I still have certain intents that ask me every single time, no matter how many time I choose a default.
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