F8: Top 5 announcements include Facebook dating

Facebook’s F8 conference recently went underway with a truckload of announcements for all their platforms! Despite all the ruckus made by the latest Cambridge Analytica scandal, Zuckerberg held his head high and excited the audience. Facebook dating tops our list:

1. Facebook Dating

Facebook Dating is something you wouldn’t necessarily expect from the social media giant. But it’s a welcome addition to the social site, with millions of users declaring their relationship status every day. While engaged, married, or people simply in a relationship are off limits, there are loads of singles.

It only makes sense that Facebook leverage this kind of data and help match its users according to their interests. In the announcement, Facebook didn’t disclose when the feature would roll out. The effects of the announcement were huge on competitors. Tinder and OkCupid’s parent company saw its share price deep dive 20% to 36 bucks a share.

You’ll be able to browse people you may match with, message people on a first name basis (until you’re more comfortable with friending them), and start conversations outside of the Messenger app. Exciting times for lusting Facebookers!

2. Messenger Makeover

Messenger has so much to offer but the interface has become pretty busy. Facebook even admitted that the Messenger app is looking “extremely bloated”. As such, A makeover is long overdue. A refresh will make it cleaner, faster, and generally more user-friendly. Perhaps the roll-out will happen as soon as Facebook Dating is released too.

3. Instagram Stories

AR face filters, third-party integrations, and more! Imagine being able to take a GoPro, shoot some videos, and upload them direct to Instagram as one of your own Instagram stories. You’re already able to upload snapshots of your latest songs to Spotify (with a handy Play button attached below your username). Expect more of these types of nifty sharing features. Stories are what make Instagram social, so we fully expect this to be a welcome addition.

4. What’s up, Whatsapp?

Another social media platform in Facebook’s arsenal is Whatsapp. We tend to forget this, but Whatsapp boasts over 65 billion messages sent daily. Minor updates to the platform include group video calls (woohoo!) and stickers. Business features are also looking to be developed, although Zuckerberg made no mention of what’s in store. We can only imagine that Whatsapp is on a path to monetization as well, which may be a welcome addition to every marketer out there.

5. Virtual Reality With The Oculus Go

You can now get the Oculus Go on Amazon – meaning Facebook may be taking gaming more seriously now. With Virtual Reality becoming all the craze, expect being able to attend events virtually through the headset, stream content straight to your eyes, or even expose yourself to more social experiences than you previously imagined.

Other notable announcement include Facebook’s nod to privacy features and updates to their Fundraiser feature.

Personally we can’t wait for these additions, and top our hat off to Facebook for such welcome changes.

Have a comment to share? Do you look forward to these things too? Let us know in the comments!