2013.04.0506:20:34UTC+00Facebook aims to take centerstage on Android phones

Facebook Inc on Thursday unveiled its most ambitious attempt yet to enter mobile computing without a phone of its own, introducing a new app that replaces the home screen on some Android smartphones.

Called "Home," the new software lets users comprehensively modify Android, the popular mobile operating system developed by Google, to prominently display their Facebook newsfeed and messages on the home screens of a wide range of devices - while hiding other apps.

"Why do we need to go into those apps in the first place to see what's going on with those we care about?" Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told the hundreds of reporters and industry executives gathered at the company's Menlo Park campus.

"We want to bring all this content to the front."

The "Home" software will be available for download for free from Google Play starting April 12. In addition, AT&T Inc has exclusive rights to sell for $100 the first handsets, made by Taiwan's HTC Corp, that come pre-installed with the software starting the same day. France Telecom's Orange will be offering the phone in Europe.

Facebook's executives, acknowledging that messaging and communications remain the most fundamental use for smartphones, also showed off a new "chat heads" messaging interface, which would combine SMS text messages and Facebook chat messages under one tool.

Some were skeptical consumers would leap at the chance to make Facebook so central to their lives.

Zuckerberg downplayed the rivalry even as he praised Google's willingness to let other companies tinker with Android. He said he was confident Google would not make changes to Android that would hamstring Facebook.

"If 20 percent of time people are spending on their phones is in Home, I really think they're going to have a hard time making a rational decision" to limit Home's functionality, Zuckerberg told reporters.

Google issued a neutral statement, saying the new phone demonstrated Android's openness.

"The Android platform has spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices," the company said. "This latest device demonstrates the openness and flexibility that has made Android so popular.