With its new "Home" on Android gadgets, Facebook is trying to prove that a company doesn't have to make a smartphone or operating system to define how people interact with mobile technology.
The audacious move will provide further insights into how pervasive Facebook has become, testing whether people want to be greeted with content from the social network every time they look at their phones.
When people start downloading the Home software upon its release in the United States on Saturday, Facebook will become the new hub of their Android smartphones.
Switch on your phone and you'll see friends' photos, overlaid by status updates, links and, eventually, advertisements in Facebook's quest to bring in more revenue and restore its stock price to where it stood when the company went public nearly 11 months ago.
Once they have had their fill of Facebook, users can swipe a finger on the screen to get to all the standard Android apps.
Home is debuting after several years of speculation that Facebook intended to make its own phone or mobile operating system to drive more traffic to its social network.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the speculation never made sense to him because he believes a company-produced phone might only end up in the hands of 10 million to 20 million people.
The Home service gives Facebook a chance to take control of the main screen of every phone running on Android, about 64 million in the US alone, estimated the research firm eMarketer.
"Just building a phone isn't enough for Facebook," Zuckerberg said last week during Home's unveiling.
Home comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from phones and tablet computers. Of the social network's 1.06 billion monthly users, 680 million log in using a mobile gadget.
Zuckerberg didn't dwell on Home's moneymaking potential. Instead, he depicted the software as a noble attempt to put a higher priority on personal relationships.
"Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" he asked."We think this is the best version of Facebook there is."
But Forrester analyst Charles Golvin thinks the company is overestimating "the extent to which this is something their users want". "I'm sure there are people out there whose lives revolve around their social network and for them it makes sense to have it front and centre," he said. "But this doesn't describe the majority of consumers."
Google will hope that Golvin is correct. The internet search leader gives away its Android software for free, in the hope that it will steer phone users to ads sold by Google.
Facebook will be muscling its way in between Android users and Google, creating an opportunity to seize the advertising advantage.
EMarketer expects US mobile ad spending to grow 77 per cent this year to US$7.29 billion. Facebook is expected to reel in US$1.53 billion in worldwide mobile ad revenue, up from US$470.7 million last year.
- AP
By Barbara Ortutay