Is Facebook Home a Flop Already?

Facebook Home was launched in the Google Play Store on Friday, the 12^th of April, but after only a few hours, the app launcher and home screen already got some pretty harsh reviews. How bad? At 5:03 p.m. PST that day, just 533 users out of a total of 1,289 gave it three stars or more, while 756 people rated it at one or two stars. And of those bottom tiers, 585 of them were for a single measly star.

This does look pretty bad, doesn’t it? Those numbers average out to 2.4 stars — well below Facebook’s other entries. Its full-fledged official app has a score of 3.6, and Facebook Messenger is at 4.4. Strangely enough, it was actually doing worse earlier.

Complaints vary from user to user. Of course, majority of the people were disappointed with the lack of widgets and folder, while a few others didn’t appreciate the dominance of the new home screen. In some case, people were just not convinced by the new home screen. However, there was a complete contrast in the opinion of some others who absolutely loved the way they could access the feeds and updates in such a lucid way.

The question is everyone’s head right now is if Facebook Home a flop? Well, it depends on what kind of user you are. As one reviewer said, “If you’re life revolves around Facebook (think teens or soccer moms), then you will probably love this.” And that may be true, that is, if you don’t mind giving up widgets, folders and other custom settings. You know — all the stuff that makes Android…well, Android.

On Friday, HTC and AT&T also released the HTC First, the smartphone that comes with the Facebook Home app-skin pre-loaded. The specs and early reviews cement everything we already knew about this device. It’s a mid-tier phone that doesn’t really excel at anything. But its middling battery life and lacklustre responsiveness aren’t all that horrible specially for buyers who want ‘smart’phones just for using Facebook, left right and center!