Windows Phone & Facebook - Good Together

Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg announced “Facebook Home,” a launcher for Android phones. It basically turns any Android phone into a Facebook phone, and they even announced a new phone called the HTC First that will run it out of the box. Mark Zuckerberg talked a lot about making phones about people instead of apps. Sounds like a good idea, right?

First - It drives me crazy that companies like Facebook feel obligated to sell their product to only one company. This has been going on for years and I guess this is just the latest example of the problem. There has also been a rumor that Facebook is working on their own smartphone as well. I for one would never actually use a "Facebook Phone" and the new exclusive to Android "Facebook Home" app sounds like this could almost turn your smartphone into one.

However you can have a nice trade-off between your social life and your smartphone without going all in on Facebook. I know this because I believe one of the things that the Windows Phone has gotten right is their "people integration". I don't think this is what Microsoft calls it but it is how I have started referring to it.

Since it's launch Microsoft has made Windows Phone all about people. This has been a common point of emphasis from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8. By connecting your Windows Phone to your Facebook account your friends, recent photos, posts, and more are right on your home screen.

Facebook on my Home Screen. Facebook Photos also appear on the "Live" Photos Tile. The Facebook tile here is in it's small form. The Photos tile in it's medium form.

In Windows Phone you can pin friends to the Start screen. You can see Facebook photos right in the Pictures app. Facebook Messenger can be used in the same app as your regular text messaging. Plus, if you happen to use more than just Facebook for social networking (like most people) you can see all of that stuff too. Zuckerberg isn’t making Android phones about people, he is making them about Facebook friends. Most of us don’t just have friends on Facebook.

The "People" app slides right or left allowing the user to easily go to sections such as "what's new", "recent", "together" and "all". "Together" is where you can create groups such as "family", "work" or "friends". This allows you to set up with the ability to send "group messages" quickly.

The Windows phone also interrogates all of your social media accounts into your "People" app. This is where you can look up phone numbers, make calls, send text messages and even read through everyone's most recent activity on social accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

Another place where Facebook is smoothly interrogated with the Windows Phone is "photos". Opening the "photos" app not only shows the "camera roll" but each of your "Facebook albums" as well. This is a great way if just want to browse you Facebook photos or if you are looking for something specific.

So as you can see, the big "Facebook Home" announcement yesterday for the new Android phone is a big "blah" to anyone using a Windows Phone.