Facebook’s 4 April event triggers mobile handset rumours

Facebook has called a press event that would take place at its headquarters on 4 April. The invitation revels little beyond: "Come See Our New Home on Android", and the date, time and venue.

Though it remains uncertain whether the announcement was related to a new Facebook experience via an app on Android or a new Android device that had Facebook at its core, a TechCrunch report cited sources to inform that the announcement would be related to a new HTC mobile handset. 

The handset would run a version of Android featuring Facebook functionality on the homescreen and integrating various Facebook services deeply within the phone, along with easy access to Facebook apps, according to the report.

A report on 9To5 Google said that Facebook and HTC had been working on a major marketing campaign in Southern California in the recent weeks.

While it was not the first time that HTC and Facebook would be bringing an integrated phone, Facebook had more mobile-centric products including its new Messenger that also supported voice calling, than it had earlier.

Two of HTC's Android smartphones, the HTC Chacha and HTC Salsa featured some Facebook integration in the software as also an additional hardware key for quick access to Facebook. An Android phone with Facebook integration had also been developed by a UK based mobile company, INQ.

Facebook  has been mostly non-committal on development of a new mobile device, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg denying getting into the mobile device business.

The TechCrunch report says, the phone software would run on hardware made by HTC.

The 9to5Google, report says the two companies have been working on a marketing campaign for the phone.

There have been rumours doing the rounds about Facebook working on a phone of its own for several months now, though, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company was focused on mobile, but denied the existence of plans for a "Facebook phone."

"We want to support an ecosystem where other apps can build on top of Facebook," Zuckberg said on an earnings call last year. "There are a lot of things you can build in other operating systems, as well, that aren't really taking, that aren't really like building out a whole phone, which wouldn't make much sense for us to do."

The last few months had seen Facebook launch a raft of new mobile products, including its Poke app and additions to its Messenger app, which added free calling.