Earlier on, we managed to catch the first few hours of the F8 Facebook Developer Conference. Even though this was just the start of Day 1, a lot was shared by the Facebook team tonight (it’s actually day-time in San Francisco where all this happening), especially in the keynote address made by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
While a lot of tools were introduced, here are just some of the highlights of day 1 which included the following:
Facebook Introduced the Messenger Platform
Facebook Messenger, the Instant Message service that we were all prompted to use to be able to chat on Facebook Mobile has now taken on another form as a full-fledged platform. It will integrate with other apps that enhance chat and communication. This allows developers to create apps that offer add-on services like GIFs, audio and video clips.
Businesses can tap into the connectivity fo Messenger
Called Businesses on Messenger, it was demonstrated by an interaction between a business engaged in a transaction with a user who is also on Messenger. This feels like an extension of m-commerce to the Messenger chat, something that amps up the level of engagement businesses and brands are meant to have on Facebook with their followers and customers.
360 – degree videos for Newsfeed
Spherical video is coming to Newsfeed and it will be offering different angle views for video. It’s something that Google has already touched on, but once again like the huge drive into video(think competition for YouTube), Facebook is jumping into Google space.
Facebook Analytics for Apps
This will offer developers of apps that integrate into Facebook analytics on the performance and engagement of their apps. All this is information necessary for improving the marketing of apps and improving the app User Experience. I couldn’t help but think of the promotional tool Android started piloting last month to help developers in gaining visibility for their apps on Google Play.
A lot more services are going to be touched on at F8 and, of course, a lot of focus for us will be on WhatsApp. The service is a big deal right now, especially with the WhatsApp voice calls feature that everyone on Android has been playing with these past few weeks.
Now that Messenger has already started going undergoing a transformation that makes it look like a WeChat in the making, it will be worth knowing how WhatsApp will fill in the pure IM role, or if it will be gunning for the 10% global VoIP market that Messenger already has.
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