Illustration of the Facebook application. - DENIS CHARLET / AFP

A smartphone for right-handers only? This is the preposterous invention that Facebook teams would have developed a few years ago, according to Steven Steven Levy, author of the Facebook book : The Inside Story .

Interviewed by The Verge on Thursday, he explains that the American giant had designed a phone whose main features were not accessible to left-handers. The device, imagined by designer Yves Behar, offered the mobile user a button located in the groove and making it possible to scroll the screen with a simple gesture of the thumb.

The HTC First, a failure

Only problem: this option being located only to the right of the laptop, left-handers - still 10% of the population - could not use it. Same observation for the touch sensor to unlock the screen, also located on the right. This choice was deliberate, according to an employee of the American firm.

The project ultimately never saw the light of day. This did not prevent Facebook from trying its luck in the mobile market, by marketing the HTC First in 2013, recalls BFMTV. Without success. To date, only Apple has fared well in the smartphone economy among GAFAM members.

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