In just 10 days, Facebook Home has just surpassed a half-million installations on Google Play. As a point of comparison, that's only slightly less than the population of the entire nation of Luxemburg.
While Android users have certainly proven curious about the über social app, they may not be all that enamored with it. The 11,375 reviews on Google Play have averaged out to just 2.2 out of five, with a particularly high density of 1-star ratings (5,891 one-star reviews as of writing this--or more than half of all reviews).
Compare this paltry reception to some of Zuckerberg & Co's more veteran Android releases such as the namesake Facebook app, which averages out to 3.5 stars from 6,726,267 reviews or Facebook Messenger, which boasts an average of 4.5 stars from 681,454 reviews.
Looking through Home's one-star reviews, user complaints ranged from the app sucking up battery power to its propensity to hide the phone's other functionality. Several reviewers stated that they quickly uninstalled after 15 minutes.
Within the dismissive one-star comments, I found several reviewers like Matt Higgons who were disappointed but still hopeful that Home could become something worthwhile, writing "It was cool at first, but needs some [sic] tweeking to be more user friendly."
While the biggest names in Silicon Valley continue to battle for mobile ubiquity, there will be several missteps along the way. We will soon find out if Home will be more like the Facebook mobile app and steadily improve over time, or become like Google Buzz and eventually become the latest entry in the social trash heap.
