Facebook Home hitting iPhone soon

Facebook said that features from its new Home software for Android-powered smartphones will begin spreading this week to Apple's popular iPhones.The first Facebook Home feature to arrive on iPhones will be Chat Heads that let message exchanges with friends follow people as they navigate the social network.

Facebook last week staked out a "home" on Android smartphones as it stepped up its challenge to Apple and Google in the booming mobile market.

The software weaves the social network into the home-screen of HTC and Samsung phones powered by the latest versions of Android to focus experiences on "people and not apps".

"We're not building a phone and we're not building an operating system, but we are building something that's a lot deeper than an app," Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters early this month.

The Android software, which allows users to see Facebook's Cover Feed when they turn on their phones, became available for download last week from Google's online Play shop in the United States.Users can start with Facebook on the home-screen and navigate and switch back and forth between apps, as well as simultaneously send and receive messages through Chat Heads overlaid on the screen.

Facebook customized Home for Android-powered smartphones because the operating system made available free by Google can be openly tweaked by hardware makers as opposed to the tight grip Apple keeps on iPhone innards.

Facebook software for Android takes over smartphone home and lock screens, but the version for iPhones requires users to click into the social network's mobile application.



"We have a great relationship with Apple; Google is aware of what we are doing; we have talked to them... We are committed to doing our best on every platform" Zuckerberg said.

The iPhone app update comes as Facebook tries to connect more with mobile users, and deliver more ads in the fast-growing segment.

Stay tuned as we will post photos and review of the Facebook Home app when it hits the App Store.