Facebook’s F8 developer conference: Key announcements

It’s that time of the year when Facebook tells the world what it has up its sleeve for the next year to come. The social media giant has shared an outline of what all it intends to do at this year’s F8 developer conference. Here, we have listed down all the new features and updates that are coming to Facebook and its products like Instagram, Messenger and Oculus. Take a look:

Facebook Groups and Events are getting revamped

In a recent announcement, Facebook said that it will be downplaying News Feed and at its F8 developer conference, it gave us a better insight into its plans. As a part of FB5 update, the social media giant will highlight groups and events. The platform will now have a prominent groups tab and will offer you a personalised feed from the groups that you are part of instead of the regular updates from friends. Even when you will be on other parts of Facebook, updates from Groups will show up. A new feature called ‘Meet New Friends’, which will connect strangers who have something in common.

Instagram will start hiding public likes

Instagram is getting a new ‘Create Mode’ on its platform which will make it easier for people to share content other than just photos and videos. The app will also be getting a feature that will let users shop on the platform itself. In addition to this, Instagram will also be testing a feature in Canada which will completely hide the public likes from users’ posts.

Messenger will start focussing on ‘Close Friends’

Facebook Messenger is also set to change. You will now be able to set status messages or share photos with your trusted friends. Facebook is beginning in these changes in order to make it easier for people to arrange an offline meeting session. On iOS, Messenger app will now be taking less space on your device as the new version will only be 30MB in size. Facebook will soon also be launching desktop apps for Mac and PC.

Facebook will help you meet new people for dating

Facebook first spoke about its dating service last year. At this year’s F8, the social media platform said that it will be rolling out its service to 14 more countries. The company has introduced a feature called ‘Secret Crush’ which enables the user to create a list of friends on Facebook they like. If one of these friends also use the feature and add the user to their list, Facebook will notify both of them about the match.

New Oculus products will be out next month

Facebook has now opened pre-orders for its Quest and Oculus Rift S headsets. The new headsets are touted to replace the external tracking cameras with a more user-friendly system. Both the headsets are priced at $399 each and will begin shipping in 22 countries on May 21.