Facebook denies talks with Apple to bring Home to iPhone, brings Chat Heads to iOS

Facebook has brushed aside rumours that it’s in discussions with Apple to bring Facebook Home to iOS.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that The Social Network is in talks with Apple over the possibility of expanding its freshly launched bespoke Android launcher to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Director of Product, told the biz news outlet: “We’ve shown them what we’ve built and we’re just in an ongoing conversation.”

He added, however, that it would ultimately be Apple’s call as to how Facebook Home is integrated with iOS, meaning it could look distinctly different from its Android counterpart.

“It may or may not be Home,” said Mosseri. “We could also just bring some of the design values to the iOS app. That might be how it ends up. Or we could build just the lock screen. Maybe then it’s not called Home, it’s called something else.”

Today, The Next Web reports that it’s been told by Facebook that although it has “good relationships with both Apple and Microsoft, right now no discussions have taken place to bring Home to those platforms”.

It’s likely that Facebook has only approached Apple and Microsoft to demonstrate Home and what possibilities it offers rather than enter actual negotiations to make it available on iOS and Windows Phone.

That said, the social networking giant doesn’t necessarily rule out eventually moving Facebook Home to newer pastures and making it available to as many of its billion users as possible.

After the unveiling of Facebook Home earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg told Fortune: “We’d love to offer this on iPhone, and we just can’t today, and we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want.”

Unfortunately for The Zuck, iPhone owners don’t quite feel the same the way. In a uSwitch Tech poll, eight out of 10 iFans said they won’t miss Facebook Home on their handsets.

Still, for the remaining two that will miss it, Facebook has just brought one of its main features in Home: ‘Chat Heads’, in a new update to its official iOS app.

Chat Heads, if you’re unaware, lets you have a conversation with a group of friends as pop-up bubbles over the screen while you’re doing other things. Unfortunately, on iOS it only works within the Facebook app and doesn’t come with SMS integration like the Android version does.

Via:

The Next Web, Bloomberg