Facebook's Virtual Reality Future: The Metaverse
Tags: ai, machinelearning, facebookmetaverse, programming
Published: 2021-10-29 12:03:53




Today Mark zuckerberg introduced metaverse at facebookConnect2021





Section 1: What is metaverse?


In the concept of Metaverse, virtual reality and augmented reality converge and merge, creating an immersive world that's fun and explorable.



But first, what is Metaverse?



Metaverse is an online space that emulates a real world. People use it to make virtual avatars, interact with each other, and find entertainment. People create Metaverse by opening portals and expanding existing virtual spaces using the technology of the future, and its social network, facebook.com.



Note that this article is part of The Facebook 10, a series of articles looking at key players in Facebook’s 10 year road map. This is the first of two articles on Facebook’s Virtual Reality future. You can find the second here.



Here’s a hint: you don’t need a VR headset to participate.



What does the future hold for facebook's virtual reality?


Mark Zuckerberg had just three words to describe the state of virtual reality today in his closing remarks at Connect2021:



Space exploration:

Ariel asks:

Space exploration



Mark has put a lot of emphasis on VR as being the future of virtual reality. The community was excited to get a glimpse of how much progress was being made, and it has been so excited that we have been asked to discuss it in detail on the final day of the Connect conference.



It may seem contradictory for our community to ask us to talk about the future of something that isn't here, but hear me out.



Mark Zuckerberg is betting the social network on virtual reality (VR). It's Facebook's best bet for the future of social interaction. VR will forever change the way we interact.



How does technology shape our world?


Will we get to live in virtual worlds like we lived in the gaming world? How do we feel about that?



Come and listen to panellists talk about what virtual worlds really are and what it means to be part of such a world.



Since virtual reality is the hot technology at the moment, everyone is talking about it. One of the most prominent examples is Facebook's Facebook's Oculus team recently opening up the Oculus store, allowing users to create a VR experience.



Why should you listen to this video?



If you're serious about developing for virtual worlds like Minecraft, this video is for you. Panellists will talk about the evolving nature of virtual worlds, hardware and app development.



The future of interconnectivity


In 2014 Mark Zuckerberg put together a manifesto outlining the future of connectivity which was a game changer.



Last year he announced Facebook's aim to connect everyone on the planet and introduced an initiative called "Connectivity for the rest of the world".



In its effort to achieve this goal Facebook will be using the above infrastructure which includes the use of solar panels and wind turbines. This will be a tough challenge as the post-oil world in the 1950's is already well and truly over. In fact in some places the distance between people is closer than ever and we don't even need technology.



About 800 million people have no internet connection at all, while millions more are restricted to mobile connections which are typically slow and expensive.



Conclusion


Facebook believes that user experience is a gateway to communication, media consumption and learning. What could we learn from their vision for future Facebook? We learn that they believe that virtual reality will replace television, game consoles and Facebook as we know it. I do not think the future of Facebook will be in a different way than the future of television was in our grandparents time. What we have to do as designers is to keep the user experience unchanged and work on the interactions to improve user experience and keep them engaged for longer.