Facebook 'Meta'verse: What will it include? All you need to know

Facebook, on Thursday, October 28, 2021, announced its rebrand, naming a parent company called Meta. Along with the new name, the founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a letter addressed to the entire community that "to reflect who we are and the future we hope to build, I’m proud to share that our company is now Meta." From now on, all of Facebook's products will share a new vision of helping to bring the metaverse to life. 

With the change, it is clear that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, will now be focussing more on its products and services in the realm of virtual reality. To do this, Facebook will expand its efforts in the direction of digital products and services that can not only be viewed but experienced by the user. The company also acquired Oculus, which is one of the world's leading VR headset manufacturers. Facebook's metaverse and the concept as a whole are about taking the digital experience from viewing to experiencing the same in a digital environment. Keep reading to know what will it contain. 

How will metaverse come into existence?

During Connect 2021, Facebook announced a host of services and products that will be developed as the first step towards what can be called a full-fledged metaverse. While the term itself has been coined to refer to a digital environment where users exist in a digital presence (avatars) and interact with other users and digital products in real-time, many technologies have to work in convergence to bring it to life. Developments in virtual reality will play a key role in deciding the pace at which the world moves towards the next level of digital user experience. Metaverse will include anything and everything that allows a user to access the digital world, interact with it and share the experience with other users. 

Products announced by Meta during Connect 2021

• Horizon Home: the new VR-based experience will be developed in due course to fully take its form as a platform to host the digital presence or avatar of a user. Multiple avatars would be able to interact in real-time, creating a digital environment. 
• Messenger Calls in VR: Meta will be bringing Messenger audio calls to a virtual reality-based experience later this year.
• Gaming: Meta has announced the development of the popular GTA game San Andreas for Oculus Quest 2, wherein players will be able to be a part of the digitally created environment of the game with the help of headsets. 
• VR-based fitness accessories will be available by next year for Quest 2, including new grips for the touch controllers and an exercise optimized facial interface.
• Quest for Business: it would be a set of features for Businesses that might migrate to the metaverse in the near future. The suite will provide access to productivity and work-related applications in a digitally created environment. 
• Presence platforms consist of machine perception and Ai capabilities including Passthrough, Spatial Anchors and Scene Understanding. 
• Project Cambria and Spark AR updates 

Image: Facebook