Facebook Home, the new app-based smartphone UI from the social networking giant, has leaked online in beta form, just days ahead of the software’s formal launch.
Formally unveiled last week alongside the first device to come preinstalled with the social central interface, the HTC First, Facebook Home is set to transform a selection of compatible Android devices, with the newly leaked and downloadable beta model offering a premature glimpse of what’s to come.
Published by MoDaCo, the Facebook Home beta APK is compatible with a selection of devices, including the likes of the Google centric Nexus 7 and Nexus 4, despite coming with a selection of stipulations for those eager to sample out the skin prior to its official release.
Coming with the download warning that those installing the Facebook Home beta “do so at your own risk,” the leaked software is only compatible with devices that sport a maximum screen resolution of1280 x 768p. Those looking to make use of the early software release will be required to download and install a trio of APKs.
Despite offering an insight to the benefits Facebook Home will eventually offer, the beta release boasts a limited range of functionality, with some of the software’s features, such as Chat Heads, a messaging service that allows users to send SMS and IMs without leaving applications, missing from the download.
Set to launch via the Google Play Store this Friday, April 12, the final and official Facebook Home release will bring a range of the social network’s key features to the core of Android handsets, laying the content over a new, Coverfeed lockscreen, providing live Facebook updates.
With notifications being brought direct to the handset’s home screen, the Facebook Home UI utilises real-time updates, as well as making other Facebook services, such as Instagram and Messenger available at the fore.
Via: TheVerge
