Social media is already pretty key to our lives. But if Facebook Home has its way, that prevalence is only going to grow. Essentially an all-encompassing Google Android overlay (somewhat like Amazon’s Kindle launcher, only more so), the new Home elevates Facebook to the forefront of the mobile experience for Android users. Status updates, photos, events, messages (and eventually advertising) will all become the mainstay of Facebook Home users, devoting the entire homescreen and lockscreen to users’ accounts, promoting interactions with friends, and pushing other apps into the back seat.

On the one hand, it is a deft move on the part of Zuckerberg to reinvigorate Facebook’s presence and usage on mobile devices. On the other hand, it also represents an interesting shift away from the typical app-based interfaces (such as Apple’s iOS and other Android implementations) in favour of a purely social-based platform.Depending on your standpoint, Home is either a testament to Google’s open source ethos or a ballsy slap-in-the-face from Facebook, warning of the potential commercial pitfalls of being so free and giving. (What happens when Facebook actively start monetizing Home? What will be the long-lasting effects on Google’s traditional wares like Search and Gmail now that they’re being sidelined by Home’s inbuilt social apps? And then there’s the wealth of new user data collection and analysis that will be opened up.)

Launching as in-built platform on the new HTC First phone, the Android overlay will be available for several other devices on Google Play over the coming month, beginning in the US on April 12. Quite how Google and Facebook will (or can) play nicely in the future, however, remains to be seen.