Facebook April 4 Event: What To Expect

Facebook has already started sending out press invitations for its upcoming April 4 event. Those invites are leading to more information dribbling out.

Facebook is currently asking everyone to “Come See Our New Home On Android.” What does that mean? Reports indicate the company is on the verge of introducing a new home screen for mobile devices.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is developing software for Android-powered mobile devices that displays content from users' Facebook accounts on a device's home screen. It will be the first screen visible when the device is turned on.

Moreover, Facebook appears to have a partnership with HTC as the company is “expected to first offer” this new capability on smartphones made via HTC, with the social network giant already reaching out to other Android-based device makers to work out placement deals.

This new move by the company “is designed to increase the amount of time people spend on its service and boost revenue from advertising, these people added. About 23% of the Menlo Park, Calif., company's fourth quarter advertising was from ads on mobile devices,” the WSJ writes.

Facebook is planning to make the app widely available for all Android devices, and manufacturers are expecting to make a few tweaks to the Android software to allow the Facebook app to take over the device's home screen. As of now, the company has more than 650 million mobile users.

“Such changes by the manufacturer don't violate the agreements those companies made with Google to preserve the consistency of the Android user experience, one of the people familiar with the matter said,” the report adds.