I take issue with the problem statement: "today, phones are built around tasks and apps. To see what's happening with your friends, you pull out your phone and navigate through a series of separate apps."
Firstly, the value to me in owning a smartphone and paying the charges associated with it is ultimately task orientated - from running my business, to getting driving directions, to wanting to play a specific genre of music at the gym. That's actually where the value is in my phone. Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want those to become second-class citizens over friend communications.
Secondly, it's very hollow to define the problem as 'your friend's activities are spread across multiple apps' when their solution only promotes Facebook activity to the fore.
My FB friend's activity is currently only contained in one app - the FB app. Their solution only removes the checking of multiple apps because those other apps (non-FB social networks, IM networks, etc) are going to be relegated into obscurity and no longer top of mind.
How's that ultimately helpful to my real, technology agnostic, friendships?
"Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want [task-orientation] to become second-class citizens over friend communications."
You're not their demographic. Phones are still a primarily social technology for most people. The most popular features, voice calls, text messaging, and possibly email, revolve around people.
P.S. I know several people who friend news sources and bloggers and use Fb as an ersatz RSS feed, mitigating the death-by-cat-pictures eventuality.
The target segment is quite evident from the splash page that says, and yes this is my serious face, "Get right to Facebook, Instagram and other essentials".
I think you're confusing social interactions and socializing, which are quite different in intent. While socializing requires social interaction, it's not the other way around, and social media feeds off of socializing.
Perhaps I'm not in the demographic either, since a majority of my call and email usage is not based in any form of socializing. Texting, somewhat more, but I do little texting, and when I do it's usually just for logistical purposes -- "meet you at 6pm at FooBar" -- which also isn't socializing.
Well, it wouldn't be very professional for them to just come right out and say, "Say goodbye to the days of checking your Twitter feed separately by no longer using Twitter!"
Yeah, I often see technology: news tickers, desktop widget, live tiles, full-screen apps, etc; that seem to assume that I'll be spending some significant amount of staring at a device waiting for it to ambiently present me information at a snails pace, while I just stand there doing nothing.
Even when I'm using social features of my app, my focus is - "I'll see what my friends are up to while I wait for coffee"; "I'll post something to keep in touch with people". I'm never going to get my phone out of my pocket, turn on the screen, and just stand there hoping that if I wait long enough it might tell me something interesting.
I agree with the basic core of what they're saying- apps are silos, especially on iOS. If they allow third parties to also push content to Facebook Home (and they've been friendly to third parties for a long time) the idea could yet be sound.
Firstly, the value to me in owning a smartphone and paying the charges associated with it is ultimately task orientated - from running my business, to getting driving directions, to wanting to play a specific genre of music at the gym. That's actually where the value is in my phone. Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want those to become second-class citizens over friend communications.
Secondly, it's very hollow to define the problem as 'your friend's activities are spread across multiple apps' when their solution only promotes Facebook activity to the fore.
My FB friend's activity is currently only contained in one app - the FB app. Their solution only removes the checking of multiple apps because those other apps (non-FB social networks, IM networks, etc) are going to be relegated into obscurity and no longer top of mind.
How's that ultimately helpful to my real, technology agnostic, friendships?