Home away from home —

Facebook Home is now live and ready to download

Get it in the Google Play store or by buying the HTC First.

After a morning of waiting, Facebook has finally made Facebook Home available in the Google Play Store. Only a limited number of handsets are supported for Facebook Home right now, including the HTC One X and One X+, the Samsung Galaxy S III and Note II, and the forthcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. Facebook Home is also included out-of-the-box with the new HTC First.

Facebook Home enables you to take advantage of new features like Cover Feed, which essentially runs a slideshow of your friends’ status updates for the lock screen and home screen. It also enables notifications that pop up over the Cover Feed (as pictured in the screenshot above). Facebook Home replaces Android’s apps list with an App Launcher that has quick access buttons to post a status update, upload a photo, or check in to a location on Facebook.

You can also separately download or update Facebook Messenger to get the Chat Heads functionality added to your Android device without installing Facebook Home. Chat Heads are little pop-up bubbles with the Facebook profile photo of the friend who is attempting to get in touch with you. The new Facebook Messenger is also somewhat similar to iMessages in that it allows you to send both SMS and Facebook Messages from one application.

If you’re curious, be sure to check out our review on both the HTC First handset and Facebook Home app for Android.

Channel Ars Technica