Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

Facebook's app that takes over mobile phones has been met with a flurry of negative reviews, as people complain at just how much Facebook Zuck & Co. have put into their phones.

The "Facebook Home" app became available to download on select Android devices on Friday, and at the time of writing had a rating of 2.4, with almost half of its reviewers giving it one star out of five. Many of the complaints revolve around the app making it difficult to access other phone features.

"Facebook Home – Take your expensive mobile device and limit it down to apps and stalking," reads a sample one-star review. "Good job FB – Way to try and move mobile technology backwards."

For some, Facebook Home just packs too much Facebook into a phone. The app replaces phone lockscreens with a rolling feed of pictures derived from the users' friends on the social network, and also prioritizes Facebook apps like Messenger above typical Android features.

Many one-star reviewers voiced their dislike for the way the app replaces a Facebook lock screen with a constant display of personal information. Others were more critical of the way Facebook Home makes it more difficult to access other Android features.

Facebook Home: more dislikes than likes

"You have to be a complete facebook junkee to use this for more than 5 minutes," reads another. "It takes away the ease of your phone actually being a phone and even adds complication to using facebook. Uninstalled."

Really, what did these people expect?

"It's just exactly what I want," reads a four-star review. "A simple, smooth, bubbly kind of home launcher. Dont need widgets.. but I would love to see folders in the future, and maybe custom short cuts on the lock screen."

This is a sentiment that runs through the (fewer) five and four-star reviews of the app: Facebook is great, and I never used many other features, anyway.

It's the sort of thing likely to worry mobile operators as well, as Facebook's attempt to skin Android seems to fulfill many of the needs of the casual phone users that have typically been targeted by their carriers.

It all backs up Facebook PR headman Elliot Schrage's response to us when we asked about the privacy implications of the app: "This is a tool for [Facebook] access," he told us. "The phone is designed for people that want the experience." ®