Millions of people have the Facebook app on their Android phone. Far fewer users have installed Facebook Home, the launcher-slash-apperating system that debuted on the HTC First, the phone nobody bought.
So now Facebook is taking some of the best features from Facebook Home and dropping them into an update of the Android Facebook app that will go live later today. The company is also making Facebook Home available on a wider range of Android handsets. The newly supported phones are the HTC One, Nexus 4 and Samsung Galaxy S4. They join the other previously supported devices: the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, and the HTC One X, One X+ and First.
After the update, users of these Android handsets with the Facebook app installed will be able to set Cover Feed as their home screen. So you lucky people can essentially browse Facebook without unlocking your phone. Cover Feed is a constantly refreshing visual display of your personal Facebook News Feed, so your lock screen will passively show you photos from high school friends, or your aunt, or so-and-so's baby. While this may be a Trojan horse bearing annoyances -- eventually, Cover Feed will include advertisements on the lock screen -- mainly, it's a way for heavy Facebook users to get more Facebook.
Unfortunately, although almost any Android phone can install the Facebook app, it's still the usual suspects (high-end Samsung, HTC and Nexus devices) that can access Cover Feed functionality. And Chatheads, which is our favorite Facebook Home feature, is still siloed in either the Facebook Messenger app or Facebook Home. But considering that Facebook features have cross-pollinated from standalone apps before, it won't be too much longer before more Facebook Home features blow onto a wider variety of devices.
