F8 2016 - Everything You Need to Know
April 12th marked the first day of F8 2016 - a gathering of the developer community taking place in San Francisco with more than 40 sessions discussing the latest in technology, development, and innovation. With experts in attendance, there was also the opportunity to get one-on-one help from the Facebook team. Not only is this event a way to reveal new platforms and innovations, but it also gives developers the insight about the direction that Facebook is taking as they create new products and services.
The History of F8
Starting in 2007, the F8 conference is a conference held in San Francisco by Facebook, surrounding the new products and services that developers and entrepreneurs can create around the Facebook platform. Events include keynote speakers, product announcements, and various sessions surrounding different topics. The name F8 stems from tradition at Facebook of having 8-hour hackathons.
Take this mario kart hackathon from The Social Network, for example.
Chat Bots for Messenger & The Messenger Platform
During his keynote presentation, Mark Zukerberg made the VERY interesting point that between Messenger and Whatsapp , there are about 60 billion messages sent every day. SMS messaging, on average, sends 20 billion messages a day. So by those stats, its safe to say that Messenger is more popular than texting. Enter the new Messenger Platform, featuring Chat Bots - aimed to streamline and automate messaging like never before.
Check out Mark Zuckerberg's Keynote!
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouE6qyTc-l0[/embed]However, this new update isn't only created with users in mind, but also businesses.There's nothing worse than calling a business to be put on hold for who knows how long, just waiting until that music stops and someone answers. By integrating Chat Bots into Messenger, businesses now have a new platform for communicating with customers, faster. From customer support to e-commerce, there are endless ways businesses can use this platform for interacting. This also removes the obstacle of having to use your full attention waiting for someone to pick up the phone, or install endless apps for all the different businesses you interact with.
Visit Facebook for Developers to learn how to make bots of your own!
VR - Live Video and Oculus
Facebook recently launched Live video, and the response has been amazing. People are more likely to watch Live video, stay tuned longer, and comment on average 10X more than traditional video. Live video is so intriguing because its real - your friends will feel like theyre physically with you, and theres no pressure to take that perfect picture. From such a positive response, Facebook is preparing to launch immersive videos from a new 360-degree camera, so users will have the most in-depth experience when communicating with each other. Details of the camera design will be made available later this summer from Github.
In 2014, for a cool 2 billion dollars, Facebook acquired Oculus - launching Rift headsets. Zukerberg also announced that as part of their 10 year road map, well be able to see augmented and virtual reality through something as simple as a pair of glasses.
Additional features and updates announced
Instant Articles
Launched on April 12th, instant articles allows publishers anywhere, of any size, an immersive and in-depth experience when publishing articles. This new feature will solve the problems that arise when multi-layering text, images, and other forms of content.
Save for Later
Publishers will now be able to integrate a save buttons with articles. Users will be able to select articles or videos, which will directly save to a Facebook queue where they can watch them later.
Facebook Expression Kit
Profile videos have been circulating around Facebook recently, but at F8 Facebook announced the third-party applications. Users with iOS can create video loops using Flixel, VINE, MSQRD, Boomerang, lollicam, and BeautyPlus.
Why is F8 2016 important for marketers?
Facebook prides itself on being the ultimate experience when it comes to communicating with your friends and sharing stories and experiences that are important to you, as a part of an interactive and immersive environment. This gives marketers the opportunity to appeal to their audience on a platform where they can engage on a more personal level - through the new Messenger Platform, for example. Marketers can also integrate new Live drone streaming video, or images from the 360-degree camera into campaigns. Furthermore, creating additional forms of content audience members can share among one another. It's also a way to show your customers how tech-savvy, and up-to-date you are with the latest in technology and innovation. Take the Facebook Expression Kit - this now gives us a chance to familiarize with Apps like Flixel or Boomerang if you've never used them before. From 360-degree drone images to profile video, it wont be long before you start seeing these new features throughout your news feed or daily messaging. Is it lame that were already excited for the next F8? Which announcement are you most excited about?!