With Facebook F8 not taking place this year, Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook leaders will do a series of updates throughout the year to share what they’re working on to help people connect.
In this Facebook live broadcast, Mark Zuckerberg shared some new product updates that they’ve been working on, to help everyone feel more connected with each other even while we're apart.
New Facebook Features: Video Calling, Video Rooms, and Live Video update
Facebook is releasing new updates to three major product categories:
Video Calling - Best for ad hoc and 1:1 interactions or small group calls.
Video Rooms - Create a link and send it out to recipients to join your call via the web. Similar to popular video conferencing platforms.
Live Video - There are few people live streaming but there are a lot of people that watch and engage with live streams.
Updates to Video Calling across facebook apps
Facebook Portal sales have grown more than 10x and as a result, the company is working on building more of them.
WhatApp users will be happy to hear that Facebook is going to double the number of people that can participate in a group call, from 4 to 8.
Messenger
Facebook is introducing 360 degree, immersive virtual backgrounds. Instead of just having a static background, as you move around, the background will move and maintain perspective.
They’re also focused on launching more augmented reality (AR) effects around things like birthdays and activities like camping.
Another new feature will be artificial intelligence (AI) powered mood lighting. And we're launching AI powered mood lighting.
Overall, Facebook wants to make your video presence more effective, more fun, and more enjoyable.
Messenger Kids
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, usage of Messenger Kids has grown in use to more than 7 million actives - up more than 3.5x during this period.
Facebook has announced that they will be expanding Messenger Kids to more than 70 different countries and territories around the world.
Virtual Date in Facebook Dating
Facebook is launching an integration between Messenger and Facebook Dating, that they are calling “Virtual Dates”.
Users can invite a Facebook Dating match to a video chat in order to get to know each other. For those concerned with privacy, it’s helpful to know that your last name is not shared when using this feature. Users can choose to accept a new invite to connect with the match again afterwards.
INTRODUCING Video Rooms
The major difference between video calling and video rooms is that with video calling, you're actually calling someone or multiple people.
With a Video Room, you set up a room and invite people to join ahead of time by sending out a link.
Facebook is working on a new product called Messenger Rooms. And the basic idea with Messenger Rooms is that you can create a room for any activity or event and share a link to attendees. The individuals that you invite to a room are not required to have a Facebook account. Zuckerberg announced that they want Messenger Rooms to work in WhatsApp and Instagram.
One of the advantages of Messenger Rooms that you won’t find in other video conferencing platforms is that, you can create a room you can open it to all of your friends or all of the people in one of your groups or communities if you want.
Users can expect to see a tray at the top of the Facebook news feed where they can see active rooms that are being hosted.
Messenger Room hosts will have the ability to make a room private or public where it’s open to friend and Groups. Note that if you create a public room, Facebook’s algorithm will promote the Messenger Room to individuals that are more likely to be interested.
Other standard privacy features include kicking out bad actors and locking a room if needed.
If you want to create a planned Messenger Room with a dedicated start time, then you’ll have the option to do so. You can set it at some point in the future, and then Facebook will notify the people who you've invited about the room a few minutes before it's set open.
This new Messenger Room feature will also be integrated with Facebook Events. This is an opportunity where you can host online events and charge a fee.
Messenger Rooms will launch across all of Facebook’s apps including Facebook Portal. The rooms themselves will be natively hosted in messenger.
Facebook Brings Back “Live With” Feature
Across Facebook and Instagram, there are more than 800 million daily actives that engage with with live video.
Facebook is bringing back the “Live With” feature to Facebook Live.
That means when you’re live streaming from your mobile device, you’ll be able to invite a viewer to join your live stream as a guest - similar to Instagram Live.
Facebook Portal Will Broadcast to Pages and Events
Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to go live INTO a Facebook Event, soon you’ll be able to do so.
You’ll be able to mark Facebook Events as online only and, in the coming weeks, integrate Facebook Live so you can broadcast to your guests. To support creators and small businesses, we plan to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences. - Facebook Newsroom
Instagram Live is coming to Desktop
For those that go live on Instagram, your viewers can now tune in to your live stream from the comfort of their desktop.
