Facebook’s F8 developer conference has begun with some key announcements from the company, including more AR emphasis for the camera, Spaces for Social VR, Workplace, and updates to Messenger. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that for the company the big focus was on camera and pushing augmented reality.
Augmented Reality will let people interact and explore things that have only been possible in digital world, pointed out Zuckerberg.
“We’re all about extending the physical world online… so AR is going to help us mix the digital and physical reality better,” he added.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve started to see primitive version of these on our phones. A lot of people look at this stuff and it seems basic. We look at this and we see the beginning of a new platform. We’re not using primitive tools, because we’re still in the journey to create better ones,” said the Facebook CEO. Here’s a quick look at the top announcements from F8.
Camera for AR
Mark Zuckerberg spoke about how they want to make camera as the first AR platform. The company will help developers build for this. Facebook has announced a “Camera Effects Platform”, which will give developers tools to create effects for the new camera on the social network.
This new platform is still in beta though, and will include two products: Frames Studio and AR Studio.
Frames Studio is an online creative editor, which is available globally, and will let developers design frames that can be used either as profile picture frames or in the new Facebook camera. The AR Studio, which is open for beta apps will focus on creating masks, effects, animated frames, etc that can react to movement or interactions during Live videos. Interestingly, rival Snapchat just announced 3D Animated Lenses or filters than can also react to live movements from a user.
Facebook has also rolled out two live effects to Live Videos, which are This or That and GIPHY Live. These are powered by the AR Studio tool, and will respond to what happens in the livestream in real time. Essentially, the Facebook Camera will have a lot more AR driven elements in the future.
Facebook Spaces
Facebook Spaces is a new virtual reality app, launching in beta for Oculus Rift. It will let users hang out with VR versions of their Facebook friends, and also includes 360 videos and photos.
Users can interact with this virtual world, for example, which is the whole point of VR. For example, “they can draw in the air with a virtual marker”, even phone your friends in the real world with Messenger’s video calling. When the friend picks up the call, it opens a windows into this VR world. People can also create photos in this VR world, and share with their friends.
Messenger
The Messenger platform also got a boost a F8, which is not surprising given that Facebook has been aggressively pushing this app, every since it was made separate from the main app. Facebook Messenger will now have a Discover tab to help people find the right bot from the home screen itself.
Facebook is also adding Messenger codes, which people can scan to find brands, businesses on the app.
Additionally chat extensions will allow multiple people to chat with same business simultaneously. People can now add a bot inside their group thread. Facebook Messenger’s AI assistant M will now have the option of ordering food in the US via delivery.com. Messenger is also getting smart replies as well.
Workplace
Workplace, which is Facebook for work, will now have new integrations, including Live video feature. Facebook says over 14,000 organisations are using “Workplace on every continent, including Antarctica.”
Workplace will also be getting bots, and Facebook plans to introduce a free version of this later in 2017. The free service, however, won’t come with administrative tools or the ability to sync with Google Drive or OneDrive; for that the organisation will have to pay. Facebook will have a paid version of this from September 30, and it will start charging at $3 for first 1000 people.
Places Graph
This will provide free data to over 140 million places, including public spaces and parks, to restaurants, stores and other local businesses. Think of this as how Google displays data around a business or a place; Facebook will do the same, showing a user the place name of the place or landmark, address, photos, ratings based on Facebook user votes, etc.
Developer Circles
This will be Facebook’s community-driven program and any developer can join it free of cost. According to Facebook, each of the ‘Developer Circle’ will be led by members of the community who can hold offline events, meetings, etc. The idea is to encourage developers to meet, share their ideas, build new tools with help from Facebook.
Facebook Analytics
Facebook Analytics will give users new tools to analyse their app and website. The new “Automated Insights tool” will now rely on advanced machine learning and AI for new insights for users.
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