Home mobile app: because Facebook isn't everywhere already

I like Facebook, but I’m not in love with it. Recently, Facebook began running a commercial called “Airplane” to promote a new experience for Android users. Through Facebook’s new mobile app, Home, Android users will be allowed to Facebook message constantly and view Facebook content on home and lock screens. This would have been a great April Fool’s joke but it is a week late.

I completely agree with one of the negative comments that was mentioned in the Adage article, “‘I don’t even understand what they are trying to show us,’ one Facebook user wrote. ‘It makes no sense to me. If I get a Facebook phone is my life going to be like a circus with that annoying tuba sound following me around?’”

Facebook on HTC First 

Image from: http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-ads-coming-phone-s-home-screen/240753/

Facebook has already grown its strong roots into the soil of our social lives, it is not leaving anytime soon. But as new digital technologies emerge, so do unsuspected competitors. Any social media platform that can be more relevant to users than Facebook, can serve as the axe chipping away at Facebook’s tree trunk. I understand Facebook needs to be innovative and relevant to users to remain as the top competition. Although, I do not believe that the kind of integration their new app offers, or the HTC First, “which will come with the feature preloaded and sell for $99," is necessarily the way to go.

What are our phones really for? How do we use them (apps, web, messaging, etc.)? Yes, a lot of us use it for social media every day, multiple times a day, but I use my phone for many other things too for example, games and email. My phone goes with me wherever I go and I use it in many ways throughout my day and it would be a great inconvenience going about my day if I had left my phone at home. My phone is a part of me and my life. Facebook is not my life, it is only a tiny part of it. Honestly, as someone studying advertising and a Facebook user myself, I would not buy a cheaper phone in exchange for more ads.

McDermott, J. (2013, April 6). Facebook looks to bring ads to your phone's 'Home' screen would you buy a cheaper phone in exchange for more ads? Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-ads-coming-phone-s-home-screen/240753/