On the first day of the annual Facebook F8 summit, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues tried to put behind the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and announced a lot of new services across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus, which they said aimed to “bring people together”. While the launch of Clear History feature was announced before the Facebook F8 kicked off, the highlight of Day One of the summit was the announcement of a new dating platform that has everyone talking about it.
Other keynote speakers on Day One of the developer conference were Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Instagram Product Managers Jyoti Sood and Shilpa Sarkar, Instagram Data Science Manager Tamar Shapiro, WhatsApp Director Mubarik Imam, VP of Messaging Products David Marcus, VP of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong, VP of VR Hugo Barra, and Head of Social VR Rachel Franklin.
Here is a list of the big announcements made on Day One of Facebook F8 — a two-day event where the global developer community of Facebook meets to discuss the future of technology.
Clear History
The feature will enable users to see the websites and apps that send information to Facebook when they use them. Users can delete data about apps and websites they have interacted with, and turn off Facebook’s ability to store it.
READ MORE | Ahead of F8, Facebook unveils new feature Clear History
Sharing to Facebook, Instagram Stories
While people can share content from other apps and websites on Facebook, the new feature will let them share matter to both Facebook and Instagram Stories. Facebook says it’s making the experience “faster, easier and more creative on Stories”.
All you need to do is tap the share button in an app like Spotify to share what you are listening to directly into the camera. “From there you can edit and share to your story or feed,” says Facebook. To share to Stories, you don’t have to connect your Facebook or Instagram account to other apps.
New dating platform
Facebook is all set to have a new feature for dating and relationships. It won’t be like Tinder, though. The feature will be available within the app but users can create a dating profile separate from their Facebook profile. Facebook will recommend potential matches based on preferences, common threads, and mutual friends. The feature begins testing later this year.
Groups & Crisis Response
This new Groups tab in the works will help navigate to existing groups more easily, claims Facebook. You can discover new groups through the tab. The feature will be ready later this year.
Facebook announced the Crisis Response feature last year. Through Crisis Response, people can get information about recent crises and access Safety Check, Community Help and Fundraisers. The platform will now enable people affected by a crisis to share firsthand accounts of real-time updates in the form of text, photos and videos. The feature will be available later this year.
Blood Donations on Facebook
A new feature was recently launched for the people of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan to register as blood donors on Facebook. In a few weeks from now, the people in the three countries will be able to view nearby blood donation camps, requests for blood donations and blood banks from one place on the social networking site.
AR for Instagram & Messenger
Facebook had at F8 last year announced the AR camera platform. It is now bringing the feature to Instagram. Users can now design camera experiences, including face filters and world effects, for their followers on Instagram using AR Studio.
Brands can now integrate AR camera effects into their Messenger experience. This feature to be launched in closed beta will help people get instant feedback about purchases. People will be able to customise or try on merchandise, walk through new products, or simply express themselves in a fun way, says Facebook.
Video chat & redesigned Explore on Instagram
The video chat feature available so far on Facebook Messenger will come to Instagram now. Video chat on Instagram Direct will facilitate both one-on-one and group conversations. The feature is being tested now.
It was announced at Facebook F8 the existing Explore feature would be redesigned to make it easier to discover things. Facebook says the new Explore “will organise suggested content into relevant topic channels”, making it easier for a user to go deeper into any specific area. The feature being tested now will be rolled out soon.
WhatsApp Group Calling and Stickers
WhatsApp will soon have a group calling feature. Stickers wil also be shared in the coming months.