Pre-Release Version of Facebook Home Now Available for Download

Facebook Home will make its way to Google Play store on April 12. But a pre-release version of the interactive Home launcher has already been leaked for those who want to try it out a couple of days before it officially comes out.

MoDaCo has reported that the leaked Facebook Home launcher comes from a leaked HTC First ROM. Facebook Home consists of three separate APK files, a new version of the Facebook app, a homescreen launcher and a new Facebook Messenger with support for Chat Heads.

If you want to try out the social networks latest invention then you can download the three APKs right now. Keep in mind however, that its at your own risk. The apps are just a pre-release version of the original thing, so they aren’t actually ready for the general public yet and Chat Heads are not working correctly. Although, other stuff seems to work fine so far, but there are bound to be a couple of bugs and glitches.

So, if you want to install Facebook Home on your phone then you’ll need an Android smartphone with a resolution of 1280 x 768p. However, there’s a catch, you’ll have to uninstall your existing Facebook app first. So, if you have Facebook preloaded onto your phone then unfortunately you can’t install Facebook unless you root your phone to remove the app.

Last week at the event, Facebook said that Facebook Home will only work on a few select devices first: HTC First, HTC One X, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Although, the leaked version can work on many other devices as well, the apps have been tested on the LG Nexus 4.  So, if you have Google’s latest flagship then you can try it out easily.

Another thing about the app is that it gives you an option to hide or display the Android notification bar whenever you want. Users have the option to swipe down on top of the screen to show the bar anytime by default.

Screenshots have also revealed that the launcher adds a menu button to phones that have onscreen buttons like, Nexus 4. We wonder if these buttons will also show up on devices with physical or capacitive buttons, lets hope not.

Check out the official MoDaCo post for the download links and to get more info about the launcher.

Do let us know if you try it out on your phone and don’t forget to mention your device.