Facebook on Thursday unveiled a new mobile software suite which makes the social network the "home" of Android smartphones.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new software would make Facebook the home screen of Android phones, and allow the devices to be "designed around people and not apps."

"We're not building a phone and we're not building an operating system, but we are building something that's a lot deeper than an app," Zuckerberg told a gathering at the company's headquarters in Silicon Valley.

The software, which allows users to see Facebook first when they turn on their phones, will be available for download starting April 12, Zuckerberg said.

It is also being made available through Taiwan-based electronics firm HTC, which will launch its Facebook home-screen smartphone called HTC First, to be available through US carrier AT&T.

AFP