Facebook<\/strong> unveiled a series of new moves in augmented and virtual reality<\/strong> on Thursday, as part of its longer-term effort to help build a “metaverse” that will bring physically distant people closer together.<\/p>\n Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would rebrand as Meta, a name change that comes as the company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, its algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its platforms.<\/p>\n The tech giant said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. It said it would not change its corporate structure.<\/p>\n CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong>, speaking at the company’s live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference, said the new name reflected its focus on building the metaverse.<\/p>\n The metaverse<\/strong><\/span>, a term first coined in a dystopian novel three decades ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley<\/strong>, refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual environment which can be accessed by people using different devices.<\/p>\n Before the wave of stories published on Oct. 25 revealed new details about the troubling ways Facebook Inc.<\/p>\n runs its social networks, the company had been hoping to spend the week talking about its plans to expand beyond that business. A major theme at its annual Connect conference beginning on Oct. 28 will be the company\u2019s ambitions for the so-called metaverse<\/strong>, a new digital space that it believes will supplant smartphone apps as the primary form of online interaction. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong> has said pursuing this path will transform Facebook, and has publicly set a goal of attracting 1 billion users to the metaverse by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n Bosworth<\/p>\n The metaverse has played a prominent role in science fiction for decades\u2014the digital universes of the novels Snow Crash and Ready Player One, where characters live parallel digital lives to their physical existences, are metaverses.<\/p>\n The idea is that smartphones are reaching their limitations in creating immersive computing experiences, and people will hunger to go further, opting to engage in three-dimensional digital interactions, for example, instead of doing video chats. \u201cYou can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet,\u201d Zuckerberg told the tech news website the Verge last summer, \u201cwhere instead of just viewing content, you are in it.\u201d The person in charge is Andrew Bosworth, a longtime executive and close friend of Zuckerberg\u2019s who will take over as chief technology officer in early 2022. \u201cWe want to give people a glimpse into that vision, into that future,\u201d says Bosworth, 39, known within the company as Boz. He describes the conference as a \u201clove letter to the future of the metaverse.\u201d Facebook is playing both offense and defense here. If the metaverse becomes the next way of interacting online, the company will benefit from having had a hand in its design. Facebook has also long been aware that its access to users relies on such companies as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google and their devices and operating systems, a vulnerability that has been highlighted by Facebook\u2019s recent dispute with Apple over ad targeting. Facebook thinks that people will access the metaverse from their smartphones, but that increasingly they\u2019ll use devices like the Facebook-owned Oculus VR headsets, which would be an obvious coup. He sees the metaverse as key to the company\u2019s plans to \u201cdiversify future revenue streams, cement its position in the next computing platform, and potentially rewrite its company narrative going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n To fulfill its ambitions, Facebook will likely need cooperation from both a skeptical public and competitors it\u2019s trying to circumvent\u2014the metaverse idea only really works if Apple and Google users can play, too. Otherwise, says Bosworth, it\u2019s just a bunch of universes.<\/p>\n The company is betting it can build the metaverse in a way that brings other companies along. Bosworth, who has been at Facebook for more than 15 years, has played a role in the creation of almost every one of its core products.<\/p>\n He helped build News Feed, the main way people engage with the social network and the company\u2019s core moneymaker, as well as Facebook Groups, Messenger, and the network\u2019s ads team. For the past four years he\u2019s been running Facebook Reality Labs<\/strong>, the company\u2019s futuristic division building virtual-reality headsets, in-home speakers, and augmented-reality sunglasses. Zuckerberg considers him a close friend; their kids play together, and when Bosworth<\/strong>\u2019s home was under construction he rented a house from Zuckerberg, moving in next door.<\/p>\n Facebook unveiled a series of new moves in augmented and virtual reality on Thursday, as part of its longer-term effort to help build a “metaverse” that will bring physically distant people closer together.<\/p>\n Between the lines: Facebook<\/strong><\/span> has said this is its next major push, but it comes as the company is under intense scrutiny for how it is managing the impact of its existing services.<\/p>\n Details: The company is using its annual Facebook Connect conference to outline a series of new features and products, as well as some investments to spur adoption of the technologies. Among them:<\/p>\n Horizon Home: Facebook is making the home screen on Oculus Quest more social, allowing friends to gather, watch videos together and dive into games and apps<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Messenger calling in VR<\/strong>: This will start with being able to call from VR and eventually that will be a launch point for hanging out in virtual reality<\/strong><\/span>. The big picture: Facebook is investing billions in its metaverse push. On its earnings call this week, the company said investments in its augmented and virtual reality efforts will dent operating earnings by $10 billion this year.<\/p>\n The metaverse, Facebook said, isn’t just about AR and VR, acknowledging that people will access the virtual world using a range of new devices \u2014 including headsets and glasses \u2014 along with existing PCs and smartphones. What they’re saying: Speaking briefly to a group of reporters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong> acknowledged the many controversies surrounding Facebook, but stressed the importance of continuing to invest in a years-out future.<\/p>\n “There are clearly important issues to be working on in the present,” Zuckerberg said. “We are taking that very seriously. We will continue to focus on that.” also read :<\/p>\nFacebook changes its company name to Meta<\/span><\/h2>\n
Who\u2019s Building Facebook\u2019s Metaverse? Meet CTO Andrew Bosworth<\/h2>\n
facebook meta<\/h2>\n
Video games such as Roblox and Fortnite are also similar to what Facebook has in mind.<\/h5>\n
\nFacebook has been laying the foundation for this project since at least 2014, when it acquired the virtual-reality headset maker Oculus. Bosworth took over Facebook\u2019s virtual- and augmented-reality efforts in 2017, and his elevation to CTO signals how high a priority the project is inside the company. Facebook recently said it would hire 10,000 people in Europe over the next five years to help create the metaverse. In its most recent earnings report, on Oct. 25, it said its operating profit will be down $10 billion in 2021 because of investments in the division building the metaverse, and it plans to increase that spending for years before making any real money from it.<\/p>\n
\nFacebook has already invested more heavily in the field than many people realize, says Tom Mainelli, vice president for device and consumer research at the research firm IDC.<\/p>\nHow Facebook plans to build its metaverse<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nBringing more 2D apps to VR: More than 20 apps are coming to Horizon Home, with the ability to be placed on a virtual screen. Apps include productivity titles like Slack and Dropbox as well as Facebook’s own services, including Instagram. Developers will also be able to offer their own progressive web apps for use in VR.
\nHorizon Marketplace: The company plans to operate its own marketplace where creators and developers can sell their own virtual goods.
\nOn the augmented reality front, Facebook is adding hand and body tracking to its Spark AR developer tools as well as Polar, a new app that allows people to create augmented reality filters without needing to code.
\nTo spur usage of its new tools and features, Facebook is creating a $150 million fund.
\nProject Cambria: During the event, Facebook previewed a new high-end consumer headset that it says will be released next year, along with a high-end price tag. The headset will feature improved optics and color pass-through video of the real world.<\/p>\n
\nFacebook also stressed that it hopes it is building tools that will be used in a single metaverse rather than a world where there are many different, disconnected virtual worlds.<\/p>\n
\nAt the same time, he said there will always be problems, but “we are here to create things.”<\/p>\n\n