Ratings show Android users don't want Facebook messing up their Home

Facebook Home
Even E.T. wouldn't call Facebook Home

At the launch of Facebook Home, Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement that 20 per cent of time spent on a smartphone is generally being spent browsing Facebook.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Home is going to do much to increase that metric, with Android users panning the integrated app/launcher with one star reviews.

Since it launched on the Play Store two weeks ago, Facebook's Home app has been downloaded more than half a million times, and reviewed more than 14,000 times on Play.

Strikingly, over 7,500 of those reviews only gave the service a single star out of five. Admittedly, 2,300 users rated it five stars, but when factoring in all the reviews, the app has an average rating of just 2.2 out of five.

No battery love at Home

Far from being a death knell for the social network though, the Play store reviews do offer some level of hope for Zuckerberg's mobile play. One of the overwhelming reasons for one star reviews is the fact that the integrated Facebook home screen experience sucks away battery life.

The other obvious concern from user reviews is that the app goes too deep, making accessing non-Facebook content harder than it would otherwise be.

Both of these issues can easily be fixed with some improved coding and future software updates, which should go a long way to keeping all those Facebook shareholders happy.

The other good news for Facebook is that people seem to love Chat Heads. Although that might not be enough to keep them around once ads start arriving on the Home platform in future versions.

Via: Herald Sun

Having spent the past decade editing some of Australia's leading technology publications, Nick's passion for the latest gadgetry is matched only by his love of watching Australia beat England in the rugby.