Zuckerberg relying on fact that meaningful change takes time
For users, it’s unclear which new ideas are more than gimmicks
Mark Zuckerberg has seen the future — augmented reality through a camera lens, a virtual-reality app called Spaces and a new Messenger that makes everyday tasks simpler.
The Facebook co-founder and CEO heralded these cool new features as playful, amazing and with a higher purpose: to foster stronger communities in a society that’s divided.
But for the social network’s nearly 2 billion users, it’s not clear which of the upcoming changes will become more than gimmicks that keep them from straying to rival social platforms — and which, if any, will meaningfully change their lives.
The news leading up to the Facebook CEO’s opening speech showed how very wrong even innocuous product launches can go: Cable channels and news sites were focused on the “Facebook killer,” a murder suspect who had broadcast his intent, killing and confession, on Facebook video — a previous product innovation designed to share celebrations such as weddings and birthdays.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the killing at the outset, saying “our hearts go out” to the family and friends of the victim’s family. The company’s annual developers conference, however, was intently focused on the great work to come, not the sticky work of fixing what has been released.
For about 80 minutes, Facebook’s CEO laid out an online experience in which cartoon avatars, 3-D stickers and augmented reality “(extend) the physical world online.”
Soon, Zuckerberg says, everyday life will get an augmented re- ality jolt in three ways: by using the Facebook camera to display information on the real world, add digital objects in it and enhance existing objects.
Tech analysts say they will eventually become staples of consumers’ Facebook experiences. It just will take time.
“I can see brands doing this as a splashy novelty thing to get a lot of attention, but we’re still a ways off from any kind of mainstream experience of augmented reality,” says Greg Sterling, a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
For Facebook, the innovative playbook has been staking a claim to being a “first or second mover” to entice developers to build applications for the platform before they hit it big with the mainstream, says Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
Sometime that risky strategy works and sometimes it doesn’t, he says.
“Facebook has many times taken very aggressive stances on fea- tures and completely whiffed,” Moorhead says. “I don’t think they know exactly what will work. But they are not afraid to try it.”
Among the major announcements that could change the way you use Facebook:
Facebook opened up its camera platform to developers, an attempt to get thousands of programmers to build the killer app that will get people attached to a digitally altered reality they may have experienced on Snapchat or Pokémon Go but in Facebook style.
Facebook launched a social virtual reality app for owners of Oculus headsets and controllers, which allows users to create avatars based on their photos who then interact with each other in virtual spaces.
Facebook’s Messenger app expanded the way users of the popular texting app can chat with robots — an expansion of the chatbot platform Facebook launched to much fanfare last year.
“Facebook has many times taken very aggressive stances on features and completely whiffed. ... But they are not afraid to try it.”