Takeaways from Facebook's F8 Conference
Facebook’s F8 Conference took place this week, and this year’s was a big one, not because of new features necessarily. But because of Facebook’s vision for the future.
The announcements were many, but there were a few key things that marketers should take into account when it comes to preparing for the future of Facebook and technology.
More than a social network
Facebook aims to be much more than a social network or even a communication platform.
Augmented reality was a big part of what Facebook wants to focus on in its future with AR interfaces merged with glasses that bring real-time artificial intelligence to users as they go about their daily lives. Facebook wants to be part of the sights and sounds users interact with all day every day in the future.
Until then, it’s taking interactivity to the next level with Spaces, an Oculus VR-powered world that lets users interact with digital avatars of their friends. This isn’t messaging. This isn’t sharing. This is a level of interactivity as close to real-world as possible. That’s a completely different playing field than what competitors like Snapchat are focusing on.
Lastly, Facebook’s technology is changing the world. Facebook wants to let deaf users hear through their skin, and it plans to let users type up to 100 words per minute just by thinking the words, not saying them. Facebook’s finding ways to merge the brain with technology.
That doesn’t sound like a social network. These sound like moonshots we haven’t seen since Google.
Facebook Live becoming less of a factor
When it comes to focusing on the present, it’s clear that it sees two things as necessary to moving forward: the camera and Messenger.
Facebook opened up Camera Effects, a new platform that will allow developers to create augmented reality objects that users can implement in their photos and videos on the platform.
It also created Messenger 2.0, which won’t only make it easier to develop and implement bots on the platform. It will also make bot discovery much more straightforward for users. Bots have been a challenge for Facebook, but it shows no signs of giving up on them.
What is noticeably not a focus is Facebook Live. The feature wasn’t mentioned, and given Facebook’s directive to publishers to focus on long-form, high-quality content, that’s not a surprise. Still, given the fanfare and pervious ad campaign around Live, it’s a bit of a surprise.
Snapchat’s in the crosshairs
There was one product that went unspoken up certainly had a presence at F8. Snapchat is Facebook’s biggest focus. The move to open up the camera to developers to create lense-like objects has the potential to create a groundswell of innovation around the camera for Facebook, Snapchat’s biggest focus. Given that Snap, Inc. considers itself a camera company, it’d be a mistake for this to not be a concern.