Gizmodo artist rendering
If you thought the Facebook phone was pure myth, time to put on your socks so they can be knocked off. According to the official Facebook Blog, Facebook has partnered with mobile phone software and hardware manufacturers to produce customized Facebook phones. Before you get too excited, there’s something you should know.
One of the biggest reasons for doing so has been to actually enable users to visit Facebook despite expensive or slow connections. However, there’s a strong emphasis that basically there’s more coming in terms of Facebook-branded phones so stay tuned. Here’s all the details from Facebook’s Charles Wu:
The Scoop From Facebook
Every day, hundreds of millions of people access Facebook from their mobile devices to share and connect with the people they care about, whenever and wherever they want. As this number continues to grow, we want to make sure that everyone has a great experience regardless of the mobile device they choose to use.
To achieve this, we’ve been working with several application developers, operators, and hardware manufacturers from the mobile industry.
Over the past six months, we built the Facebook for Feature Phones app with Snaptu to bring improved Facebook functionality to over 2,500 different devices. We also launched 0.facebook.com as a faster and free way for people to access Facebook around the world, including locations where connectivity is especially costly and slow.
Today, we’re excited to share some of our recent collaborations with two mobile device manufacturers.
Two upcoming Android devices from INQ, the Cloud Touch and Cloud Q, feature new Facebook integrations with single sign-on and easy one-touch access to popular Facebook features. The home screen features your News Feed (including your friends’ updates, pictures, videos and links) and quick links to Chat, Messages, Places, notifications and more. You can also check in to your favorite shops and businesses with Facebook Places, right from the home screen.
HTC’s ChaCha and Salsa phones feature a dedicated Facebook button that gives you one-touch access to your favorite Facebook functions, allowing you to update your status, upload a photo, share a news article and check in to places. Facebook Chat, Messages and your friends are also integrated, so when you make a phone call, the screen displays your friends’ status updates and photos, and even their birthdays.
In addition to these new phones from INQ and HTC, you’ll also be seeing similar deep Facebook integration on dozens of other devices over the course of this year. Some manufacturers will be highlighting Facebook as a part of their phones’ on-screen interfaces, and others will use our brand as an element of the device hardware itself.
We believe almost anything is better when it’s social, and this year we’ll continue to invest in new technologies so you have a great Facebook experience no matter where you go.
Cover image source: Gizmodo (not the real phones!)
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