Alcatel, Huawei and ZTE as well, along with AT&T, EE and Qualcomm

Apr 5, 2013 11:01 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday, Facebook announced new software for devices running under Google’s Android operating system, namely Facebook Home, a new kind of launcher that would deliver a socially connected experience to all users.

Facebook Home will arrive on Android through the Google Play Store next week, but was also announced as loaded right from the start on a new device from HTC, called HTC First.

However, it seems that this mobile phone maker is only one of the companies who partnered with Facebook for the launch of the new app / launcher.

Alcatel, Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and ZTE also joined the party, although it’s yet uncertain whether Facebook phones will arrive from them or not (though chances are that more “Facebook phones” will be released after HTC's First).

Additionally, the launch was supported by carriers such as AT&T and EE (and Orange), as well as by chip maker Qualcomm.

As mentioned in our previous report on Facebook Home, handsets that will support it next week include HTC First, HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung GALAXY S III, and Samsung GALAXY Note II, with support planned for HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S4 in the not too distant future.

Facebook Home arrives on these mobile phones as a set of apps designed to offer a social-centric experience to users, with features such as Cover feed, Notifications, and Chat Heads, but also with support for app shortcuts and the like, just as on any other Android launcher.

“Facebook Home is a software experience designed to run on Android devices. Facebook Home is a family of apps. You install them and they become the home of your phone,” Facebook explains.

“We designed Home to be the next version of Facebook. But we also wanted to do something more. We wanted to reimagine the way we all use computing devices to make us more connected and bring us closer to the people we care about.”