Facebook announced Tuesday it will be offering an update to its iOS apps that brings some of the functionality on it Facebook Home to iOS devices. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly in talks with Apple about creating a version of its new mobile software for the iPhone in a bid to boost revenues.
Facebook announced that some of the updates coming to the iPhone and iPad include Chat Heads, a feature rolled out with Facebook Home that allows for multi-tasking while chatting.
"Now you can keep chatting even when you're doing other stuff on Facebook, like checking your News Feed. Tap chat heads to reply, drag them around, or flick them down to close," Facebook said.
Chat Heads will be rolling out to the iPhone and iPad Facebook app over the next few weeks, as will "Stickers," which look like Pokémon-esque emoji for messages (below). "Tap the smiley to add stickers to your messages and get more stickers in the Sticker Store," Facebook said.
After debuting the software, called Home, for Google Inc. Android operating system earlier this month, Facebook now wants to get Apple on board and is in talks with the company, Adam Mosseri, director of product Facebook told Bloomberg. The talks are in progress and nothing has been finalized, he said.
Mosseri noted that on iPhone devices, the Home software would be tailored to what Apple prefers. It could look much different than the Android version.
"It may or may not be Home," he said. "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."
