“Home is the first product we’ve released that’s really about ‘mobile-best’ and the transition beyond ‘mobile first’” said Facebook’s Cory Ondrejka. To further that, Facebook previewed some new features Home will get eventually including a “Dash Bar” buddy list for starting chats, an improved “Dock” for your favorite apps, and a better “new user experience” onboarding flow.
Later today around 3pm PST, Facebook will release its first update for Home in the form of a Google Play update to Facebook For Android (which hosts some nuts and bolts of Home). The update is predominantly performance and bug fixes, and doesn’t include these new features mentioned above. Dash Bar, Dock, and NUX will come in future monthly updates, but no specific schedule has been revealed.
As for ads in Home, Ondrejka says there’s no timetable for that yet either. “We know we’re going to do ads in Home, but there are steps we need to take before we do that so they fit into Home’s aesthetic and they’re beautiful. We’re not ready yet” said Ondrejka.
Home Makes People Use Facebook 25% More
Ondrejka gave a momentum update at the “Home Whiteboard Session” today at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park. He explained that Home is nearing 1 million downloads, and users’ favorite features are Cover Feed and Chat Heads. Those who download Home spend 25% more time on Facebook as a whole. That stat alone could mean Home is a success. Home also increases the number of comments and Likes someone leaves on the news feed by 25% too. Ondrejka also said that Chat Heads increases participation, or the raw percentage of people who use Facebook Chat, by 7%, and it increases messages sent by 10%.
However, there were a few main complaints in Home, which I detailed on Tuesday. Specifically, people don’t like losing the personalization they’ve already done on their phone. They don’t want to lose their widgets, app dock, and folders. Users also said it’s too difficult to start a Chat Heads conversation. Finally, some users get confused about where their old Android app launcher went. Facebook will address these with a few new features.
Future Changes To Home
NUX
Facebook will add a better “NUX” or new user experience that it internally refers to as “Blue’s Clues”. When users first install Home, they’ll get a deeper walkthrough of how to use gestures to reveal their app launcher, chat, and use other features. This should reduce confusion and frustration.
Here’s a Vine previewing the new onboarding experience.
Dock
A new app dock will be added to Facebook Home’s app launcher. Android users gave feedback saying they enjoyed the tray of favorite apps that always sits at the bottom of the launcher. Home got rid of that, but in future versions, users will be able to build a similar Home dock. You’ll be able to toss the Home navigator icon downward to reveal the dock.
Dash Bar
To make starting a conversation fast, Facebook will add a Buddy List into Home. You’ll be able to open this bubble to get an instant look at all your friends and see which ones are online to chat with. Then you can initiate a conversation with them instantly. Before, you had to open the full Facebook Messenger app to start a new conversation.
Respecting Your Old Phone
Facebook seems to have realized that people spend time customizing their phone experience. They don’t want to sacrifice it for Facebook Home. They want both. This previewed slate of changes will help Facebook respect the phone you already personalized. This is a shift from Facebook as a homescreen replacement to a homescreen layer. This way users can have their Home, and
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Facebook Previews New Features For Home, Which Is Near 1M Downloads And Increases Users’ Time Spent…
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