This week Facebook is unveiling the future of its developer platforms during its annual “F8” conference in San Francisco.
For more on the future of Messenger, Facebook live video, chatbots, artificial intelligence, and Internet-beaming satellites, read on — and check back for more as we update this list today and tomorrow with breaking stories from our reporters on the ground at the event.
Messenger gets chatbots
Facebook announced that it’s opening up its Messenger platform in beta, allowing businesses to create chatbots for the service. This means you’ll now be able to interact with an AI-powered “representative” from a business right inside Messenger.
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Livestream API opens for developers
Facebook announced a set of partners for its livestreaming product and opened up its live API, which it plans on building out in the next five years.
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Facebook’s Internet-beaming satellite: launching soon
Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s Internet.org program will launch its first satellite in the next few months. According to Zuckerberg, Facebook’s Free Basics initiative has now helped more than 25 million people around the world get online. Facebook also announced a Free Basics simulator for developers.
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360-degree camera / flying saucer
Facebook created (and will open source) a 360-degree camera to capture virtual reality imagery for its Oculus Rift headset. Along with the camera, Facebook built software to stitch the footage together as a seamless 360-degree video.
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Bot Engine: Teach chatbots what to say with AI
Facebook announced the beta launch of Bot Engine, a tool for teaching chatbots what to say in specific types of situations. The technology — which developers can use in association with the Send/Receive API for building Messenger bots — comes from Messenger’s Wit.ai team, David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging said today.
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Account Kit: Sign in to apps without passwords
Facebook announced the launch of Account Kit, a piece of new software third-party developers can add to apps that will let users sign in with just an email or a phone number — no passwords necessary.
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A ‘Save to Facebook’ button
Facebook is making its “Save to Facebook” button — for adding content to a list of things to look at later — available for use on websites other than its own. Facebook introduced the Save button in 2014, and it has racked up more than 250 million users each month.
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A button for sharing quotes
Facebook announced a new way for users to clip quotes they like on the Web and then share them in a clean and neat way in the News Feed. “We have special content types around songs and albums or fitness, like runs,” Facebook product manager Eddie O’Neil told VentureBeat in an interview. Quotes are just the newest option.
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Zuck on the future of VR and AR
Mark Zuckerberg said that virtual reality and augmented reality of the future will be accessible by a powerful gadget that looks like an ordinary pair of glasses. VR and AR are expected to become a $120 billion business by 2020, according to tech adviser Digi-Capital.
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Twilio + Facebook Messenger
Twilio has extended its API support to Facebook Messenger, offering developers another medium with which to communicate with users.
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Stay tuned for more.