What We Learned From ‘Facebook’ Connect 2021
A roundup of all the key updates from the annual event
Facebook’s company title will be renamed to ‘Meta’
In a move similar to Google’s 2015 decision to rebrand the parent company to ‘Alphabet’, the switch to ‘Meta’ allows the distinction between the umbrella company and all of its subsidiaries. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and all other apps are keeping the same names, but the umbrella company that includes Facebook, Facebook Reality Labs, and all its other subsets will now officially be known as Meta Platforms, or Meta for short.
Meta’s focus will be to “bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” Zuckerberg shared more about his mission in a Founder’s letter.
RIP Oculus
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth also announced that the Oculus brand will be retired from existing and future hardware releases, which means the Oculus Quest 2 will become the Meta Quest 2 next year.
Project Cambria
It was revealed that a new standalone headset codenamed Project Cambria will launch in 2022. Project Cambria will be a high-end device at a higher price point than Quest ($299), packed with all the latest advanced technologies, including improved social presence, colour Passthrough, pancake optics, and a lot more. More info on the device here.
Project Nazare
Alongside the reveal of the new Project Cambria VR headset, Meta gave a codename to its first pair of consumer AR glasses: Nazare. Zuckerberg described the glasses as the company’s “first full augmented reality glasses,” but also indicated that they are still a work-in-progress: “There’s a lot of technical work to get this form factor and experience right. We have to fit hologram displays, projectors, batteries, radios, custom silicon chips, cameras, speakers, sensors to map the world around you and more into glasses that are about 5mm thick. So we still have a way to go with Nazare, but we are making good progress.”
Presence Platform
During the keynote, Presence Platform was announced. On the developer blog it was described as “ a broad range of machine perception and AI capabilities — including Passthrough, Spatial Anchors, and Scene Understanding — that allow you to build more realistic mixed reality, interaction, and voice experiences that seamlessly blend virtual content in a user’s physical world.”
Horizon
Horizon Home is the latest addition to Horizon, the social platform to help people create and interact with each other in the metaverse. Soon, you’ll be able to invite your friends to join you in Horizon Home, where you can hang out, watch videos, and jump into games and apps together. A new personal workspace environment in Horizon Home, called Studio was also introduced.
Horizon Home joins Horizon Worlds, currently available in beta, and Horizon Workrooms. Later this year customizable rooms in Horizon Workrooms will be added, giving users the ability to choose from a wide variety of different work environments, and place their own company logos or team posters in the rooms. Click here to learn more.
Venues is also joining the party. Horizon Venues lets you enjoy the energy of live events from the comfort of home.
Meta is getting rid of its mandatory Facebook login for Quest headsets.
The announcement that Quest 2 headsets would require a mandatory Facebook login was met with criticism back in October 2020. In light of that feedback, Quest headsets will no longer need a Facebook login at some time in 2022. Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg had to say:
“As we’ve focused more on work, and frankly as we’ve heard your feedback more broadly, we’re working on making it so you can log into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account. We’re starting to test support for work accounts soon, and we’re working on making a broader shift here, within the next year. I know this is a big deal for a lot of people. Not everyone wants their social media profile linked to all these other experiences and I get that, especially as the metaverse expands.”
Content
A number of new games and updates were announced, including a five-title partnership with Vertigo Games and new events for VR battle royale POPULATION: ONE. Check out the Oculus Blog for even more gaming news.
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