The hope is not gone yet. We don’t know why you would want to surrender all your data to Facebook on a silver platter, but if Bloomberg is to be believed, the social network is still thrashing out options with Apple and Microsoft to see if a similar app can be made for their respective smartphone platforms.
But, the social network is not feigning ignorance to the fact that neither Apple now Microsoft will provide them with the level of freedom to integrate (and literally take control, some may say) with the operating system as Android did. Adam Mosseri, Director of Product, Facebook, says, “We’ve shown them what we’ve built and we’re just in an ongoing conversation. It may or may not be Home. We could also just bring some of the design values to the iOS app. That might be how it ends up. Or we could build just the lock screen. Maybe then it’s not called Home, it’s called something else.”
The clear motive behind these “tell us what we can do, and let us make something to consider” attitude from Facebook is the lure of monetization from the mobile applications. The more users on board, and actively engaging, the better. “There are no ads on this yet,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m sure at some point there will be.” That is pretty much from the horse’s mouth then.
Facebook made the Facebook Home application for some of the recent Android smartphones from HTC and Samsung, with the HTC First getting the title of the “Facebook phone”, for having Facebook Home and Instagram preloaded on the device. Facebook Home essentially replaces your phone’s default launcher (like HTC Sense or Samsung’s Touchwiz), and puts its own overlay on the lock screen and the home screens. The idea is to let you get instant access to what your friends are posting on Facebook – updates, photos, check-ins etc.
We are not really sure if Apple and Microsoft will agree to giving Facebook even a percentage of complete access that Facebook Home essentially gets. Some features may get included in the native Facebook apps for the two platforms, and on Facebook Messenger on the iPhone.