Facebook reportedly disbands Facebook Home for Android team

Update: Facebook said in a statement to The Verge that work is continuing on Home:

Facebook tells us that work is continuing on Home. This article originally stated that it appeared Facebook was abandoning efforts on Home, per aTimes report suggesting that continued development was unlikely.

After launching Facebook Home last year, the company’s customized Android experience that puts Facebook services up front and center, could soon meet its end. The fait of the app is being questioned in a new report from The New York Times that claims the company has “disbanded the team of engineers originally assigned to work on Facebook Home”

The company has disbanded the team of engineers originally assigned to work on Facebook Home, its custom-made mobile software for Android devices, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The company still isn’t commenting on whether or not this means Facebook Home’s end of life is nearing, but Facebook has given some clues that could be the case. As noted in the report, it’s already integrated some of Home’s popular features like chat heads into its other apps and it also hasn’t updated the Facebook Home experience since January. The team has also lost a few key players including lead designer Joey Flynn who left for Slingshot. For now, the Facebook Home app is still available on Google Play.