The New Facebook
On October 28, 2021, at Connect 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Meta, which brings together their apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.
The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world. It’s the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for their company. Mark shared more about this vision in a founder’s letter.
What some are failing to recognize is that this change won’t actually affect the facebook brand, just their holding company.
According to a quote on the Guardian, “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant will change the name of its holding company to Meta, in a rebrand that comes as the company faces a series of public relations crises.”
The goal for this rebrand, published from a Business Insider article states that “Facebook's main social app will exist underneath the new brand name, as will the rest of the company's products, like Horizon and WhatsApp. It's a bit like Google existing under the Alphabet umbrella.”
Another Business Insider is found citing Mark Zuckerburg’s overall goal for a metaverse: “The metaverse essentially represents a 3D internet that spans both the physical and virtual worlds. Many people use it in reference to video games or virtual reality, and most tech companies think it's the next big thing that'll eventually succeed the internet.”
Facebook Announces Messenger calls in VR
Earlier this year they launched Messenger support in VR, letting you send a quick message to friends from inside the headset. But why type when you can talk? Later this year, they’re bringing Messenger audio calls to VR. You’ll be able to jump into an audio call with friends from any Messenger-enabled platform and eventually hang out or travel to VR destinations together.
Facebook Announces Horizon Home
In order to lay the groundwork for the metaverse, a new feature called Horizon Home will allow users to create their own digital living spaces where they can hang out with friends, watch videos and jump into games and apps together. Horizon Home builds upon Horizon Worlds, which is currently in beta, and Horizon Workrooms for businesses. Meanwhile, Horizon Venues will give users an all-access pass to live concerts, sporting events and more.
Facebook Announces The future of work
The metaverse will eventually encompass work, entertainment, and everything in between. Like phones and laptops today, their platform needs to be flexible enough to accommodate all these different use cases.
Soon they’ll begin testing Quest for Business — a new suite of features designed for businesses, but which runs on the same consumer Quest 2 headset you can buy today. Quest for Business will let you log in to your Quest 2 headset with a Work Account, an upcoming business-only login that will allow you to collaborate with coworkers and access productivity apps like Horizon Workrooms and Gravity Sketch without using your personal Facebook account. Quest for Business will also enable access to dedicated platform functions that businesses need for work, like account management, IDP and SSO integration, third-party mobile device management, and more.
