Facebook Home was just released on Friday, but the series of apps that turn your Android phone into a portable Facebook machine are now unofficially available on nearly every Android smartphone out there.
At release, Facebook Home was only compatible with the HTC One, the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy S3, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. It also comes preloaded on the HTC First, a mid-range phone made specifically for Facebook Home. That covers a lot of users, but plenty of people felt left out.
But it looks like there's an easy workaround. Paul O'Brien at MoDaCo has an APK for download that removes the device restrictions. It's not 100 percent bug-free; it seems that there are occasional issues with SMS through Facebook Messenger, but no new software is without its issues, including Facebook Home.
There's no telling when the apps will officially be available for other or older phones, so it's quite possible that if you don't have one of the preferred handsets, this will be your only opportunity to try out the new features of Facebook Home. The process does involve uninstalling your copies of the Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps and installing O'Brien's patched versions, but the whole process can be completed in only a few minutes.
The home screen becomes Cover Feed, a full-screen, live updated version of the Facebook News Feed. Status updates from friends and "like" notifications are displayed without needing to open the Facebook app.
Notifications from other applications or from the operating system itself, and messages from contacts other than Facebook are also displayed alongside, and sometimes atop of, the Facebook content.
The Chat Heads features more fully integrates messaging into the operating system, allowing chats with Facebook friends to continue while using other applications or browsing additional content.
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