back to article Facebook struggling to find 'immersive' Home on Apple's iPhone

Facebook is reportedly in talks with Apple about bringing a version of its new Home interface to the iPhone. However, it's unlikely that Facebook will be afforded the same type of freedom it received with some Android devices, which were recently decorated with a skin feeding a constant stream of personal information from the …

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  1. trashbat

    Apple openness

    Anecdotal, but a few years ago at MWC et al, at the mention of iOS, everyone would shrug and say, 'no point discussing anything there'. Now those people are starting to say, 'well, we have contacts at Apple, and nothing yet, but we've started discussions'. Of course, try it for yourself and you get repeatedly pointed at some risible developer programme, but maybe things are slowly shifting away from pure Jobsian possessiveness.

    Facebook Home though? Ha. I'm surprised that this is even allowed on Android, including the Chat Heads overlay thing from Messenger. I'm sure they've thought about it, but current API permissibility is different to being a long term acceptable characteristic of the platform.

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: Apple openness

      > maybe things are slowly shifting away from pure Jobsian possessiveness.

      Nah, people just like to boast that they have "contacts" at Apple.

      1. trashbat

        Re: Apple openness

        No, it's more than showboating. Enough people are saying it, and I believe that they are having business level discussions. The operators are doing it in coalitions too. What comes out of the other side is another matter - NTT DoCoMo were battling Apple for years, just trying to ship iPhones with certain things preinstalled.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does it blend?

    Apple: No

    One flavour only, theirs!

    1. Dana W
      Thumb Down

      Re: Does it blend?

      The fact that I don't have to worry about having Facebook defecate all over my phone is enough to convince me to buy another iPhone.

      The LAST thing I want in my phone is FACEBOOK integration. Its bad enough that I have to have Facebook at all because half of humanity refuses to communicate any other way, but turning my phone into a privacy killing data suck where I can't escape the endless ramblings of Farcebook drones? Not a chance, I'd rather have a ten year old Nokia.

      The Facebook app is the ONLY app that crashes on my iPad. They can keep their junk OFF my phone!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Does it blend?

        You are going to choose your next phone purchase based on wanting a phone that doesn't have access to a completely optional app?

        You must really love the iPhone, as there are tonnes of other optional things it wont let you do. There are some bad keyboards out there, but luckily you won't be allowed to install them (or the good ones either).

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Simple solution to it though

    Why doesn't facebook just create a nice mobile interface directly on the web and let iOS users who want facebook inspired advertising and user interface...Simple considering they use html/jquery style tools anyway for their apps.

    For me this would be reason enough to return to iOS if BB10 buckles to their demands as well...

    1. Darryl

      Re: buckles to their demands

      I don't recall seeing anywhere that you were forced to download and install the FB Home thing on any Android phones, so why would you think that BlackBerry would force it on you either?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Conversation

    "we're just in an ongoing conversation"

    and here's the transcript:

    FB: Look at what we've done; can we put it on iPhones?

    Apple: fuck off

    FB: Pleeeaaassse? At least take a look.

    Apple: hmmm. No, fuck off.

    FB: Pretty please, with cherries on top?

    Apple: Look, we're _apple_. Putting cherries on top isn't going to help. Fuck off.

    etc.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple will have to play along, especially if "Home" picks up. Who wants a phone that doesn't offer or run your preferred software? (Windows phone anyone?) They can't be picky; they have to be pwnd along with other services/everyone else.

    1. Lallabalalla
      FAIL

      Apple will have to play along

      No. No, they won't. They are still the richest corp on the planet with the most sucessful products and they can do what the hell they like.

      1. trashbat

        Re: Apple will have to play along

        I do what I want! I don't sell any phones! I use up my cash reserves! I do what I want! </Cartman>

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      >Who wants a phone that doesn't offer or run your preferred software?

      Preferred software, maybe. But if Facebook's website is anything to judge by (changes without informing users or obtaining consent, constant push against the boundaries of what people consider acceptable re their privacy etc), there is no guarantee that a Facebook app will remain as it was when you installed it; I wouldn't trust it not to 'creep'.

      Besides, if you don't know what you are doing, you are probably better off in the walled garden. If you do know what you are doing, you can jailbreak the phone and visit Cydia.

    3. Horridbloke
      Happy

      Re if "Home" picks up

      "Home" won't pick up. It's a fundamentally bad idea.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Android allowed the company to "develop a far more immersive Facebook experience" than the Jobsian-controlled iOS."

    .....and if farcebookers pick up and hold "home", having an iPhone will be come secondary (to a growing majority, it already is)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "'We've shown them what we've built"... Colosseum of Rome anyone?

    "Facebook's product director ... said the company was still at the confab stage with Apple. 'We've shown them what we've built and we're just in an ongoing conversation.."

    "'We've shown them what we've built"..

    Sorry, but I just don't get it. 'Home' Is an annoying SPLASH screen... albeit a 'Live' one. Stop talking about it like you've built the Colosseum of Rome or something! Once upon a time, software used to actually do stuff, not just be a advertising conduit of perpetual hype... These heads live in a Silicon Valley bubble IMHO, about as real as Silicon implants.

    I just see more and more hype here, and less and less functionality. But hey maybe that's just me, as I realize they see things differently with their fluffy terminology for audience 'capture'. Oh, I get it: potential advertising, potential advertising, potential advertising... as Zuck has assured us + customer phone lock-in. But meantime audiences may have f-e-c-k-e-d-off elsewhere, you know!!!

    1. The Boojum
      Happy

      Re: "'We've shown them what we've built"... Colosseum of Rome anyone?

      "These heads live in a Silicon Valley bubble IMHO, about as real as Silicon implants."

      Excellent! Lol

    2. Mr Anton

      Re: "'We've shown them what we've built"... Colosseum of Rome anyone?

      Agreed - I can see Home becoming this decades Yahoo f*kin toolbar...

      1. Sandtitz Silver badge
        Black Helicopters

        Re: Yahoo Toolbar (@Mr. Anton)

        Yahoo Toolbar is pretty harmless - I would consider Home as the BonziBuddy of this decade. Random ads, user spying/tracking - the wholesome FB experience, that is.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The 'Home' Screen.. Genius... ?

    ...Or am I the only one who thinks Zuck drew this up on a beer-mat?

    'Home' = confirmation that FB = a web-business still searching for a viable business model...

  10. Longrod_von_Hugendong
    FAIL

    FFS...

    i dont want more FB integration - i honestly dont care what you ate for breakfast. Just create an app that works properly. Preferably one that doesnt crash.

    Because isnt a 'stock on the way down' icon - there so should be

    1. h3

      Re: FFS...

      I think there is one it is called Fast Pro for Facebook. (Only runs when you start it - Notifications is a seperate addon app.)

      I read you could use messanger without a facebook account but no way I want to install something with all those permissions.

  11. Lallabalalla
    Gimp

    But, but....

    iPhone always looking like iPhone is exactly why I like them. I spend ZERO time configuring, tweaking, rooting, re-installing, rebooting, managing or otherwise doing ANYTHING with my phone apart from texting, emailing and making calls. Games? Got a few. Facebook? Got an app, it's enough already. Other apps? Loads, yeah, they all work fine thanks.

    The day Apple do this will be a) a freezing day in hell, IMO and b) the day I try something else.

    1. Ted Treen
      Alien

      Re: But, but....

      I agree.

      My new iPhone (64GB) is half full (films, apps & music) - I spend 5 hrs each day commuting (by rail) and it's well used. i spend all my time using it and damn all time tweaking, configuring, re-configuring or rebooting it. As I've been a Mac techie for getting on for 30 years (and a software engineer since the mid-70's) I'm not averse to a bit of tinkering here and there, but it's nice to have one item I just use.

      Can't think of any app I could need or want that isn't available through iTunes - but I differ from Lallabalalla in that I don't have a FB app. Rational or not, I feel rather uneasy about a site which demands registration before I can even look at an acquaintance's FB entry, and whose pervasiveness has spread to many competitions being based upon "Liking us on Facebook".

      I don't like - and so I forego competition entry. There's just something rather creepy about MZ & FB.

      Awaits inevitable rush of down votes from rabid anti-Apple hats who don't think anyone should be permitted to hold other views...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But, but....

      Thank you. My phone is an appliance to me. I do not want the lock screen, app launcher, keyboard etc. to change. Maybe this means I love living in a "walled garden." Frankly I don't care. It's just a cell phone. I have no expectation (or desire) for it to be able to run any arbitrary code. I have desktop and laptop computers for that.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just wait a few months and Apple will launch "iHome" and "invent" social networking

    1. Mike Bell

      Did it already.

      http://www.apple.com/uk/icloud/features/find-my-friends.html

  13. hypernovasoftware
    Thumb Down

    And that's a good thing...

    Sorry ZuckieBoy but we don't want you immersed on my stuff.

    When I want you, I'll touched the facebook icon but otherwise, stay the f*** out of my life!

  14. Isendel Steel

    free content ?

    "constant stream of personal information from the free content ad network"

    shouldn't it be ..

    constant stream of personal information from the content free ad network

    ?

    1. Rukario
      Angel

      Re: free content ?

      Yes, the editors seem to keep missing that error.

    2. Jason 41

      Re: free content ?

      Shouldn't it actually be

      "Constant stream of personal I formation to the content free site?"

  15. adnim
    Meh

    Some people will say

    anything to boost the share price of their company.

    Reg: Still need a shrug or a "like I give a fsck" icon. Meh just isn't strong enough ;-)

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The 'User Experience'...

    'Home' is all about mobile, and that's where its at for Zuck and his obsession with the 'user experience'... However, when I think of 'the user experience' I think of how good our new large-screen TV looks in the living room... Last night my little lady plugged in her HP laptop. Sadly she overpaid for the HP only to be rewarded with a broken screen one-day out of warranty. However once connected to a large TV it looks great, whether playing music, surfing the net, looking at holiday photos & video, or watching a Full HD movie... In short, a large screen TV has a wow impact on the user experience. I for one look forward to the promise of the future with larger screens filling entire walls and all for economical prices...

    However the small screen even a smartphone screen sucks as a user experience IMHO versus a big TV. It reminds me of being a kid watching Star Wars on a TV after you'd already seen it at the Cinema! But hey mobile is where its at, and 'Brutas was an honourable man' etc etc... Its like a mantra in the Valley: Zuck says we must repeat this everyday: mobile, mobile, mobile! Sure compared to PC sales mobile is where its at, but as a user experience-- mobile is pure hype!

    1. Ted Treen
      Angel

      Re: The 'User Experience'...

      "...a broken screen one-day out of warranty..."

      Don't know what sort of warranty you hard, but I believe that under EU legislation, a 2-yr warranty is mandatory - but I'm not familiar with all the fine print & legal cobblers.

      Might be worth checking upon, and telling your supplier or HP that it's up to them to fix it or swap it...

      Do check first, though.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Facebook hype only works as long as...

    1. We believe the product is better than it is and we keep using it,... (The only thing really great about it is the advertising model.)

    2. The mainstream media keeps reporting trivial Facebook news as if it were a second coming of Jesus or something. Meantime they gloss over privacy implications. This makes me smile, because the free press they give Zuck only serves to hasten their own demise, as advertising shifts away from them and onto FB.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Facebook in your face

    I am not keen on the idea of Facebook embedding itself that much into the operating system of my phone. I am disheartened with the Facebook Mobil app as it is. It is unpredictable and sluggish at best. If I were to end up with a phone that had Facebook immersed that deeply into the OS, then I surely would dump that phone regardless of how nice the phone was.

    As it is, I have been considering jumping from iPhone to the new Samsung, but in reading this article, if Samsung decides to allow Facebook to do as it wishes and iPhone does not, then iPhone in my eye wins my money hands down!!!

    Enough said.

  19. Rob Crawford

    For once I agree with apple

    No don't let facebook loose on your phone, the apps are crap enough without letting them loose on the home screen.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If I owned an iphone...

    The last thing I would want is the fb abomination taking over my already small screen. "Fuck Facebook"

  21. Maharg
    Terminator

    Surrogates is a 2009 film starring Bruce Willis

    For those that missed this completely ‘meh’ film, the (good) idea behind it was that in the future humans no longer interacted with each other, rather they did it via robots that the user controlled while safe at home, the user could see, hear, and feel everything the robot could, with the added bonus of not being able to be hurt and immune from infection.

    Unfortunately it was all made possible by an evil cooperation bent on power, greed and domination.

    For some reason I think this is may be the ultimate goal of Facebook…

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm happy to join Apple to say...

    NYET!

    Not because it's Apple, but because it's Facebook (the age-old adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies).

  23. The Alpha Klutz

    ha

    make an outrageous app to rebrand the whole phone

    yeah thats never going to get rejected from the app store

    hahaha

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