
Facebook Home over a week later: only 500K installs with a two-star user rating - antr
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/22/facebook-home-over-a-week-later-only-500k-installs-with-a-two-star-user-rating/
======
untog
The title feels clickbait-y. It should be pretty obvious why there were only
500K downloads- it's only available on around three devices. I'm interested to
at least take a look at it, but I can't.

As for the reviews, many of them are of the "I hate Facebook" variety, but
others seem to state (correctly) that it need some work. Given Facebook have
committed to monthly releases, I don't think this is the end of Facebook Home.

~~~
benhanks040888
Even if the 500k number is acceptable since it's only available on selected
devices, the 2 stars average rating is undeniable.

As comparison, Facebook for Android app has the average rating of 3,5. So I
guess the 2 stars should be taken as an alert for the Facebook Home developers
to keep working on it.

~~~
kevincrane
A lot of people rate Facebook at 1-star because they don't like Facebook as a
whole (I think I saw the term "protest vote" somewhere else in this thread).
The reviews that just say "I hate Facebook" clearly aren't indicative of Home
as a whole.

~~~
benhanks040888
Yeah, there must be lots of people like that. I'm just comparing it to
Facebook app which has 3,5 rating (which I'm sure lots of haters 1-star it too
but still end up with acceptable rating)

~~~
Karunamon
I mentioned this downthread, but Google unlike, say, Amazon doesn't let you
rate things you haven't downloaded/purchased. If these really are protest
votes, that would mean users are going through the effort of downloading the
app, then uninstalling it, then leaving the crap rating.

So either there are some dedicated facebook haters out there, or the people
who tried this app really hate it that much...

~~~
nradov
I rated the Facebook Android app 1 star because it came preinstalled as
crapware on my cell phone and there was no way to remove it. I had never
downloaded it.

~~~
Karunamon
You negatively rated the application because your carrier chose to abuse the
system/ partition?

Seems like misdirected outrage...

------
Mordor
The irony of forcing Facebook users to create a Google+ account so that they
can give it a favorable review...

------
smackfu
"mostly thanks to more than 5,800 one-star reviews."

AKA, protest ratings. "This sucks in principle and I will never use it since
Facebook is stupid."

~~~
Karunamon
Android doesn't let you rate things until after you've downloaded them,
though. If that's truly the cause of these ratings, people are going through a
lot of work to just say "facebook sucks".

~~~
smackfu
Actually, it does seem like a lot of people are writing somewhat legit
reviews, although they show a pretty complete lack of understanding of what
Facebook Home is. Stuff like "takes over my phone" and "hides my widgets" are
the point of the app.

------
rmrfrmrf
"The freedom of Android allows me to turn my ordinary smartphone into a free,
personal data mining, advertising platform! Take _that_ , Apple!"

------
gcb0
This is irrelevant.

those intrusive apps are made with carrier integration in mind.

You can't uninstall Facebook from any Samsung phone. And you won't uninstall
Facebook home from the new s4 and updated s3 and notes.

So, why care about user ratings?

~~~
Karunamon
You can't "uninstall" any app that the carrier forces on you, but you can
disable it as of ICS or better. The app is both prevented from running and
hidden from the app drawer.

In practice, the amount of storage you're denied from not being able to
completely wipe these apps is miniscule.

Just one of the neat bits of control that the newer Android versions give you
:)

~~~
kevincrane
Wait, can you do that for the Google-default apps too? I have a half dozen
Google+ settings/messengers/other things that I can't uninstall from my phone
(Nexus), when I really just want to hide them from view.

~~~
Karunamon
My Galaxy Nexus lets me do it, anyways. I tried on the Play Store, GMail, etc.
Looks like the only things it doesn't work on are the apps that are the
interface to basic phone functions (dialer, messaging, etc).

~~~
gcb0
sorry, we are talking about carrier locked phones and custom samsung images.

Nexus devices do not fit the bill.

~~~
Karunamon
Parent comment was explicitly referencing a Nexus device...

~~~
gcb0
But he was replying to my comment regarding Samsung phones

------
GotAnyMegadeth
I am amazed that there is an app worse than Facebook for Android.

~~~
mtgx
Only if it's another app that's made by Facebook, it seems.

------
ed209
They should have released two different products. Chat Heads and Facebook
Home.

I think Chat Heads looks like a strong product (only from referencing the
videos though, I don't have it).

Without Chat Heads, would Facebook Home have been released to such a fanfare?

~~~
turing
Unless I'm mistaken, they _did_. Chat Heads is part of the most recent
Facebook Messanger update. You can get it without Home.

~~~
gehar
and that's why I uninstalled Messenger. I don't want messages (which is
facebook's version of email) drawing on top of my other apps.

~~~
eclipxe
Turn that feature off then?

------
dendory
These numbers are misleading. Facebook Home only works on a handful of
devices. Even some of the devices that will actually allow you to download it,
sometimes the install will then claim it is not supported. A lot of the
reviews whine that the app is just not available to them. From people who
actually can use it, Home seems rather well liked by Facebook users.

------
RossM
To be fair, the slow growth might partly be explained by their restricting it
to a few devices in the US only.

------
iagomr
Advertisement in my phone's background? Thanks, but no thanks

------
badclient
May be this is just be but I have never been comfortable with facebook's make-
many-apps strategy. I've always used fb as a collective experience. I find the
need to use different apps for different functionalities a pain in the ass,
mostly because all facebook features are so intertwined.

------
baby
For those who tried it, is Home the answer to the conflict between Messenger
and Facebook? the two apps from Facebook that would give you twice the
notification in case of a message.

I get that people will all have internet on their phone in a few years and
that launching a service like facebook messenger right now is clever, but it
didn't have the technology to detect if facebook app was installed to disable
the notification in at least one of the apps.

I'm seeing Home as the "fix" but can't try it on my device...

------
wiradikusuma
I've just installed it, and unfortunately most of my friends post food/baby
photos and weird re-shares, and there's no option to download only on WiFi, so
I uninstalled it.

------
unreal37
"Only 500K installs". How many app developers would kill for 500K installs.
Its a good number for what it is - letting Facebook take over your home
screen.

------
ianstallings
I'm not sure if average user rating is a good indicator of quality. I've seen
people give 1-star ratings because they wanted a feature that was missing.

------
andyhmltn
I would use it, but Facebook has just become one giant hub of spam for me now.
Maybe 2 years ago, but now all I see on the lockscreen is stupid memes and
posts from people I don't even know. I like the chat-heads concept though. To
have a UI like that for texting phone-wide would be awesome.

------
kaio
I'm pretty sure a lot of developers would be more than happy with "only" 500K
downloads ... especially with only a few supported devices like this. Makes me
wonder if a lot of negative ratings is just another marketing strategy. "You
have to see how crappy this app is"

~~~
omni
What an average developer would be happy with is not relevant in any way to a
multi-billion dollar company with investors to answer to.

------
machbio
How people are led to believe the lie, its only available in 4 devices..they
compare it to instagram's android entry..how dumb can one get..

facebook should have released it as a beta product, it feels very barebone

------
speedyrev
500K installs. How many turned around and uninstalled? So far everyone I know
that tried it has uninstalled it. (I understand that it could be my circle of
friends...)

------
criley
I tried it out but I found it too suffocating -- Facebook, like Google, wants
their "feed" to be your main IV-line of info-tainment but in practice the
vapid updates of friends mixed in with poorly constructed advertisements isn't
very engaging.

If someone makes Facebook Home for aggregated RSS feeds, than they've invented
mobile crack and I will never be able to put it down. So maybe don't do that.

Also, Chat Heads is the best SMS implementation I've used on Android, so kudos
to Facebook for that.

~~~
Karunamon
_vapid updates of friends_

Don't friend people on Facebook who post garbage. Any social service
(Facebook, Twitter, etc) is only as good as the effort you put into curating
the experience.

Oh, and if you feel you must friend someone, you can just hide everything they
post from your news feed.

~~~
rmrfrmrf
Stop blaming the users for a bad product, especially when your suggestion goes
against the core purpose of the product in question.

~~~
volaski
Oh yeah and there's email, phone, and all kinds of other communication
platforms. They are all bad products because there's so much spam, right?

~~~
rmrfrmrf
"e-mail" and "phone" are not products. That's like calling Facebook
"internet".

