Facebook Considered Push into Open-Source Android Phones

As Facebook has prepared for the possibility of being removed from Google Play app store on Android phones, it also has contemplated an intriguing push to integrate itself with Android phones that aren’t controlled by Google, a small but significant percentage of the total Android ecosystem.

Toward the end of 2015, Facebook was looking at whether it might offer certain services to app developers, like helping them send app-related notifications to people’s phones or handling in-app payments and related fraud-prevention issues for them, according to two people briefed on the discussions. These tools would only be offered on so-called open-source Android phones that don’t come preloaded with Google Mobile Services.