Facebook Home to takeover Android

If mobile phones are our 70th-odd organ, Facebook would be the air and sun to our survival.Exaggerating? Think again.On 12 April, the social network is set to pump out a new system named Home, whereby the Cover Feed – the page that shows when Facebook first launches – will serve as both the phone’s lock screen and home screen, replacing background images with friends’ full-screen photo updates.Users can double tap to like – similar to Instagram – or slide their fingers across the screen to move to the next story.Facebook Messenger will be revamped into bubbles of friends’ profile pictures: users can tap on these bubbles to read and respond without closing the app they have been using.“We asked ourselves ­if sharing and connecting are what matter most, what would your phone be like if it put your friends first? Our answer is Home," the company said in a statement."Home isn't a phone or operating system, and it's also more than just an app. Home is a completely new experience that lets you see the world through people, not apps.”For such a big revamp, Facebook Home comes with a 60-second ad that markets Home as an un-scary technology that puts people first: it also gives prime placement to the new IM function and the new screen-wide interface.With more than half a billion of active Facebook users on mobile around the world, it’s no wonder the social media enterprise has been focusing on practical tasks like messaging and mobile-friendly uploading platforms.According to Fast Company, Zuckerberg said ads will eventually show up on the Cover Feed. As well, the upcoming dominating platform will surpass its role as a sharing and connecting platform; rather, it will be a community whereby people can help each other find “cool stuff” and hobbies of similar tastes.But marketing talk aside, there’s one major reason why Facebook is taking pains to do such a large revamp: it wants to be the default go-to for every one of its users’ needs – chat, updates, information search, finding friends, you name it.