There are some interesting little changes coming to Facebook soon. Well, developments as much as changes. Much of it is in video – Facebook sees video as being even bigger than it is now. They clearly want to rival Google’s YouTube and Google could struggle to match them given that its own social media platform, Google +, is struggling. Facebook is attempting to tie itself intrinsically into the every day activities of people and businesses.
Here’s a quick look at some of what’s coming:
1. Facebook will be supporting 360 degree video so you can drag the image around and look up and down, in a similar way to Google Maps’ street view. The Oculus VR headset would make this an incredibly immersive experience, despite the motorbike-helmet-indoors-look being a bit odd.
2. The Messenger app, which is not everyone’s favorite software due to privacy concerns, is getting more integrations and power, especially around shopping. Facebook wants to lock the ecommerce experience within its platform without having to leave. You will be able to communicate with businesses with whom you shop with inside Messenger and receive notifications from them about shipping etc. Great, but I suspect many people will still want emails confirming their shopping deliveries and receipts.
3. Messenger is also going to embed creative software like Giphy so you won’t have to create a GIF, copy and paste it back. It will all be possible within Messenger. Messenger also now allows compatible third-parties to prompt people to download their apps directly through the Messenger platform.
4. Videos posted on Facebook will be able to be embedded elsewhere online. This is a big step and potentially extremely useful. Previously, if you uploaded a video to Facebook, you could share the video only by linking to it.
5. The Internet of Things (IoT) is also coming to Facebook, but we’ll have more on that soon in another blog post, including “What the hell is the Internet of Things”?
So, some cool stuff on its way as well as some potentially useless updates to Messenger that will have plenty of people refusing to use them due to the privacy settings. Personally, we’re interested to see the video developments and less bothered by the ecommerce unless there are clear ways to help small businesses promote themselves cost-effectively. More soon…