All the highlights from the 2016 developer event in San Francisco.
Facebook hosted their annual F8 Developer conference in San Francisco last night, and they had a whirlwind of things to talk about. We’re going to do a quick roundup of the big mentions, but stick around for more detailed coverage through the day.
Firstly Mark Zuckerberg announced at the event that Facebook is launching a new Messenger Platform tool that lets developers create chat bots for customer service. The tool includes an API for the app, as well as chat widgets for the web. The goal here is to allow companies to completely, and efficiently, replace customer service lines, e-commerce portals, and the like with chat bots. However, the the bot platform is also open to media, meaning publishers can create their own chat bots to message breaking news straight. You can find the beta release of the Facebook Bot engine here.
Another new goody for Facebook developers will be the Save to Facebook feature the platform is introducing. We’ve had a “Save for later” button on Facebook for close to four years now, a way to mark content for later viewing. However, accessing those saves was always quite the hassle. Save to Facebook works a little differently. It lets publishers build the custom button into their standard articles, so users can save them to Facebook queue. And, on the plus side for publishers, the feature retains the page’s original formatting and ads.
In addition, Facebook is also releasing Live API, so new hardware and software products can be built specifically for Live Video. In fact, Facebook it seems is also big on letting users do Live Videos hands-free. They announced that DJI Phantom drones will be receiving an update soon that lets them stream directly to Live Video. And that little tidbit led to the other huge announcement of the night; Facebook Surround 360. That’s right, the social media company built a 360-degree VR camera, and the best part is that it’s open source. That’s right, Facebook says their plan is more of a design guide than a marketable product, and they’re releasing the build on GitHub very soon. The Surround 360 uses a 17-camera array with web-based software to render the video.
Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis, and other features coming to Facebook.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "dnaTechLaunch, Facebook F8, Mark Zuckerberg, virtual reality (VR), 360-Degree Camera, AI chatbots")
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}