Is Facebook Home a disaster?

Facebook Home, launched on April 4th, has split people's opinions and some love it while others hate it. The problem is that more people hate it than love it. In fact, it could be called a major disaster for the company. Instead of ushering a new mobile era for the company, it has turned people off and people have shunned the new app.

Facebook Home is an Android launcher. There are actually quite a few to choose from and what they do is replace the home screen, icons and menus with their own. Facebook thought it would be a great idea to replace the standard Android interface with one that features content from people's Facebook news feed.

There are several problems with it and one common comment is that it makes using the phone harder. People don't want it to be harder, they want it to be easier. People don't want to live in the Facebook world 24/7 and it pushes other apps and services to the back where they are awkward to access.

Comments like "It is just horrible. I don't know why would anyone want to use this. I do not see purpose for this app. It is not that user friendly at all," and "Waste of time. Don't bother. Don't know how the idea made it past the drawing board," are common on the Google Play Store.

Here are the ratings (25th May). As you can see, a huge number of people have rated it only one star. If you call three stars an OK score then 4,813 rated it as good, but 11,720 rated it as bad.

Personally, I don't install apps where the one star bar is almost three times the length of the 5 star bar.

Actually, I couldn't install it even if I wanted to. Even though I have a fairly new Google Nexus 7 tablet and a brand new Samsung Galaxy S4, the Play Store says both are incompatible and it won't let me install it. I'm pretty sure that when I first looked at Facebook Home it said the S4 was compatible, but now it's not.

The HTC First is the first smartphone to come with Facebook Home pre-installed. It's the Facebook phone that has been rumoured for years. It may be the first, but it might also be the last. Sales have apparently been so disappointing that Facebook and HTC have cancelled the UK launch.

Part of the problem is that the hardware is a bit bland. It simply isn't exciting and HTC First's specifications are very middle-of-the-road. It runs Android 4.1, which is OK, but it isn't the latest version. It has a 5MP camera, which again is OK, but some phones come with 8MP or even 13MP in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4. It has a 1.4GHz dual core processor, but others, like the HTC One has a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU. The screen is 4.3in, but many are larger these days.

Added to this bland hardware is a launcher that has had a lot of poor reviews and comments on the Play Store. The phone is a major disaster and HTC is a company that has been struggling lately and can ill afford it.