Facebook for Android gets a crazy-cool Home feature

Facebook is rolling out a sweet new feature for its Android app.

Starting today, users will be able to opt into the Home lock screen, which turns your phone’s lock screen into a gorgeous, highly visual version of your Facebook news feed — all without having to download Home itself.

The rollout should be complete in the next couple days, a rep said via e-mail.

Here’s what the Home lock screen looks like:

You can quickly swipe through the status updates and photos from your friends, and you can quickly unlock the screen and go directly to your camera or messages.

To use Chat Heads, you’ll still have to download the social network’s standalone Messaging app and enable Chat Heads separately.

This update to Facebook for Android also includes Home support for three additional Android devices: HTC’s One, the Nexus 4, and Samsung’s Galaxy S4. That’s in addition to existing Home devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung’s Galaxy Note II, HTC’s One X, the HTC One X+, and the underrated HTC First.

The Home lock screen is undoubtably our favorite feature of Facebook Home. From our official review:

Each update fills the entire screen. When you swipe your finger left or right, you go to the next update in your feed. You can double-tap anywhere to “like” any status or image or link, and you can read and make comments directly from the homescreen. You can also tap through to the Facebook app or the mobile web browser on the phone to read more from any update.

In seconds, you can immerse yourself in your friends’ worlds in a very relaxed way, flitting through stories and letting the images wash over you. You barely realize how much of your feed you’re reading until you start seeing older stories you’d already seen on your desktop.