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According to TechCrunch, who has been keeping an eye on Facebook Home’s entry in Google’s Play Store, over half a million people have given the app a go. It took an astounding nine days to reach that milestone. Many thought it would happen much faster.
Now I know what you’re thinking: But Stefan, it only works on a limited number of devices. True as that might be, Facebook Home supports the most popular Android phones currently on the market. According to the independent analyst Benedict Evans, roughly 90% of all Android devices in use have been purchased in the past 24 months.
Most of those were likely Samsung phones, so … there you go.
Should you install Facebook Home? Right now the app has a rating of 2.2, which is horrible, but hear me out. Several of my fellow journalists have told me that they like using bits and pieces of Facebook Home instead of the whole suite.
Specifically, they love the “Cover Feed” lock screen and the Chat Heads feature in the new Facebook Messenger. The replacement launcher that Facebook Home comes with is what seems to be causing the most pain, and turning that off is relatively straightforward.
I’m still not going to install Facebook Home on my device, but we’ll see if I change my stance given that the company has promised to release software updates on a monthly basis.
