During F8, Facebook's annual convention, held on April 30 and May 1 in San Jose, California, the company announced several changes. Almost all of them centered on the issue of privacy.
The idea, already announced by Facebook this year, is to develop a social and messaging platform with a more private connection. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, this is an issue he has been concerned about when thinking about the future of the internet:
“Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally,” he said in one of his Newsroom posts.
Let's see some important announcements from the two days of events?
What changes have been announced for social networks?
At F8, changes were announced for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. The four networks alone bring together more than 2,1 billion daily users.
During the event, leaders from Oculus and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality were also present to share the news.
Among the main new features, a greater focus on Facebook groups and the test to remove open likes on Instagram were announced, which came as a shock to those “addicted” to likes on the network.
More than 5 developers, creators and entrepreneurs from around the world attended the conference, which also announced initiatives to make automated interactions on the social network more natural and humanized. This confirms the trend that chatbot interactions should increasingly resemble human interactions.
What's new for Facebook?
For Zuckerberg, public networks were and are very important in people's lives, not only to connect with people they already know, but also to make new contacts, discover new ideas and content.
However, with the changing world calling for more “privacy,” Facebook’s CEO said he has been thinking of ways to help bring people together offline.
This positioning has a lot to do with the scandals suffered by the social network in recent times, when there were data leaks. It is a response by the company to regain the trust of its users.
New design
FB5 is Facebook's new design, with a simpler, faster and more immersive interface, putting communities at the center of importance.
The app will lose its blue tones and become almost all white.
According to the company, these changes will make it easier to find what people are looking for.
In the app, the new features have already started to appear, but on the desktop it will still take a few months.
Focus on groups
Currently, more than 400 million people participate in Facebook groups. Therefore, new tools are being launched for this audience.
Redesigned tab
- With the new layout, discovering new communities will be much easier.
- Personalized activity feed across all groups.
- New discovery tool with recommendations will also make it easier to find interest groups.
Group participation made easy
- Easily receive relevant recommendations from Groups in other places in the app, such as the Market Place, Games tab, and Facebook Watch
- More Group content in the News Feed, where it will also be possible to share content with the user's Groups.
New features for different types of groups
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- Health Support Groups will be able to share information and post questions without their names being visible in the publication.
- Job Offer Groups will have templates for posting new vacancies and easier ways for users to send messages to employers.
- Game Groups will receive a new chat feature so that users can create threads for different subjects.
- Facebook Live: The platform will provide ways for buyers to submit questions and place orders without leaving the live stream.
Hookup with a secret crush
The feature, which was already available in countries such as the United States, Canada, Argentina and other countries, will now arrive in Brazil and 13 other countries, including Chile, the Philippines and Vietnam.
With Facebook Dating, the social network will come closer to the attractions of the dating app Tinder.
The expression match, used on Tinder, means that if a person matches with a user, it is because they liked that user, it is a way of showing interest in that person.
Then Tinder opens a chat for matches to talk to arrange dates.
On Facebook Dating, it will be possible to discover new matches within users' own communities.
With the feature Secret Crush, It will also be possible to select up to 9 friends to express interest.
If they're on Facebook Dating, they'll get a notification that someone is interested. And if the user is also on their crush's list of 9 people, there's a good chance this will lead to a closer relationship.
Meet new friends
With Meet New Friends, people can start friendships from their communities, such as school, work, or even their city.
What changes in Messenger?
Messenger got the most attention during F8 because there are a lot more users than you might think.
In addition to the design change, which will be complete by the end of the year, to make the application faster and lighter, new products and features were also presented at F8 to help create bonds between people.
In addition, it will also have a full desktop version. In terms of privacy, like WhatsApp, it will have encrypted messages.
Find out what's new:
Watch together:
When users are not in the same physical environment as their contacts, such as family and friends, a feature will make it possible to discover and watch videos together while chatting or making a video call.
Still in testing, this feature should reach users by the end of the year.
Messenger for desktop
Also in testing, it will be possible to download the application to the desktop, both on Windows and MacOS, to make video calls or work on multiple tasks while chatting on Messenger.
Connecting with close friends
Messenger will have a space for users to discover Stories or messages from their best friends or family.
In this location, you will also be able to share content from your day.
The functionality should be available by the end of the year.
For companies
Messenger wants to make it easier for businesses to connect with their consumers.
A new ad type will redirect people to a quiz to speed up the conversion process.
And it is now also possible to make appointments directly in the conversation.
Still in the testing phase, the change to removing likes is a topic that could affect a lot of competitive people.
For some analyses, as Instagram is very competitive, this dispute for the number of likes on the photo social network may not be very healthy for the minds of some users.
And not just for them, but also for those who use the network to promote their work, such as influencers and some companies.
But there is also other news:
Shop looks from designers
The social network will install a tool that will allow users buy looks directly from content creators.
You can simply tap on the screen to see what they are using and buy directly.
A small group of creators are serving as testbeds for this new functionality.
Investing in social causes
Directly on Instagram, it will be possible to invest in social causes through the Instagram donation sticker in Stories.
Users will be able to create a campaign and mobilize their community for the cause. 100% of the amount raised will go to the non-profit organization.
The feature is only available in the United States, but the company is working to bring it to other countries as well.
Improved camera
The network will also introduce a new camera design, including Create Mode, to make it easier to share photos or videos.
While Messenger got a lot of attention at F8, WhatsApp still managed to take home a few highlights.
Small businesses will benefit from having a product catalog when communicating through the platform.
This will make it easier for companies to showcase their merchandise.
on the network.
Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S pre-orders
During the conference, pre-sales of the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S virtual reality headsets were also announced, which will be released on May 21.
Quest is the first all-in-one virtual reality gaming device, allowing players to play from virtually anywhere without being at a computer.
For those with a PC, the Rift S offers a more immersive experience.
Both will cost $399.
Oculus for Business will also be launched, which will have a suite of tools that will help companies redesign the way they do business.
The expected launch is by the end of the year, but there is still no forecast for arrival in Brazil.
Artificial Intelligence
On the second day of F8, the focus was on the long-term investments the company is making in Artificial Intelligence. And for professionals in our sector, How to use Artificial Intelligence in Digital Marketing has also been fundamental.
Industry leaders said AI powers a wide range of infrastructure and products at Facebook.
Among these initiatives are advances in natural language processing, which helped create a common language for translations.
But according to what was explained during the conference, although Artificial Intelligence is fundamental to Facebook's work, the concern is that the tool protects people and does not discriminate against them, which is always a risk when training is carried out by humans on data sets involving people.
At the event it was presented that one of the areas in which Facebook is using the Inclusive Artificial Intelligence process is Augmented Reality.
That's why Spark AR engineers are using gestures with various hand types and colors and voice commands, using data representative of dialects, ages, and genders.
Ultimately, there is a lot of technology to emerge from Facebook's software research, but the idea of the company's leaders is that everything should always be aimed at uniting and connecting people in a fairer way.