Facebook Home downloads hit one million

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The number of downloads of Facebook Home, the social networking titan's app for Android, has hit one million just one month after its release.

The company also announced the release of an update to the app that contains a number of bug fixes, although the company will be rolling out a number of more concrete improvements to the system over the coming weeks, VP of engineering Cory Ondrejka told a press conference.

Facebook Home was announced on 4 April 2013 and became available in the US eight days later, with HTC's First device being the first phone preloaded with the software.

As well as hitting the one million mark and releasing an update, Facebook also revealed it has expanded support of the software to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and other Android devices in an unofficial capacity.

Since its release, the overlay has received a lukewarm reception, with less than 0.1 per cent of the social networking site's registered users signing up for the service.

What's important to us is if people are liking the apps a lot.

Additionally, despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg's claim that Home was designed to put users' interests, rather than apps, at the heart of the mobile experience, industry insiders have suggested it has more to do with Facebook's attempts to break Google's stranglehold on the search market.

At the press event, Adam Mosseri, Facebook's director of product, said users' complaints had been taken seriously and would be incorporated into future updates to Home.

"The clear signal is: missing launch features and not being able to rearrange apps," he said.

Nevertheless, Mosseri dismissed the low number of installs as inconsequential.

"It's not really important to us. What's important to us is if people are liking the apps a lot.

"The idea is that because it's a novel interface, you slowly, gently lead the user into using the interface," he said.

The update is available through Google Play since midnight on 9 May.

Jane McCallion
Managing Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's Managing Editor, specializing in data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Managing Editor, she held the role of Deputy Editor and, prior to that, Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialize in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.