Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Facebook’s big F8 developer conference is this week: Here’s what to expect

Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote starts Tuesday at 10 am PT.

Facebook Holds Its Fourth f8 Developer Conference
Facebook Holds Its Fourth f8 Developer Conference
Justin Sullivan / Getty

You can expect a lot of updates this week from the world’s largest social network.

Facebook will hold its annual developer conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, an event where the company has traditionally laid out plans and updates for some of its key initiatives, like messaging, artificial intelligence and live video.

The conference, called F8, has moved from San Francisco to San Jose, where Facebook is expecting close to 4,000 attendees. The event will kick off with a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday morning.

F8 tends to be more technically focused — it’s for developers, after all — and has traditionally centered around Facebook’s flagship service and Messenger. Other Facebook properties, like Instagram and WhatsApp and Oculus, aren’t usually involved, and you can expect the same this year.

Look for Facebook to focus on Messenger again, and its connectivity efforts to bring internet to remote areas around the world. The company may also shed some light on its secretive hardware efforts, including new cameras and augmented reality, according to Business Insider.

The updates Facebook tends to announce here are wide-ranging. In 2014, it unveiled its ad network, Audience Network, at F8. In 2015, the big news was that Messenger, its standalone messaging app, was opening up to developers so they could start building customer service and shopping features inside the app.

Last year, Facebook extended the conference to two days, launched its bot platform for Messenger, showed off “social” virtual reality, pushed deeper into live video and rolled out a 360-degree video camera.

Zuckerberg also used his keynote in 2016 to lay out the company’s 10-year plan, which included his first public mention of augmented reality. Zuckerberg recently penned a lengthy manifesto about how he hopes Facebook can change the world, and it’s likely he’ll take his time onstage to follow up on those ambitions.

So a lot usually happens at F8. TechCrunch has reported on a few of this year’s product updates: More bots for Messenger groups, and a platform so outsiders can build more features for the Facebook camera.

Whatever Facebook has in store, you’ll be able to read about at Recode.

Zuckerberg’s keynote is set for 10 am PT Tuesday morning.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh