Facebook may be gearing up to announce its own Android smartphone this week. The social media giant recently announced it will be holding an event on Thursday, April 4, where it will reveal Facebook's "new home" on Android, Digital Spy said.

According to a report by The New York Times, the event will show the debut for a new smartphone by HTC, which will use a version of Android optimized for Facebook.

A Facebook employee told The New York Times that a user's Facebook home page will be the first thing seen when turning on the device.

Other core features of the phone, like its camera, will also purportedly be built with social network integration in mind, making it easier for users to upload their photos and videos to Facebook.

Rumours about a Facebook phone have been circulating for quite some time, with reports last year indicating a partnership between Facebook and HTC on a project codenamed 'Buffy'. Some reports even indicated that some of Apple's iPhone engineers had been courted to work on the project.

Facebook and HTC have previously collaborated on hardware with the ChaCha and Salsa smartphones, which included a dedicated Facebook button and offered deep integration with the social network.

Facebook is available on most smartphone and tablet platforms, with the social network's mobile user base growing by 67% over the last year. Around 600m users log on to their Facebook profile every month using a mobile device.

Last September, Mark Zuckerberg said that a Facebook-branded smartphone would be a "wrong strategy" for the social network.