Mark Zuckerberg announced today that Facebook would bring together all their apps and technologies under one new company brand -- Meta. With the new name, the social media giant would now focus on bringing the Metaverse to life. Metaverse is a 3D immersive environment shared by users where they can interact with each other via avatars. Think of the movie "Ready, Player One," where users could interact in a virtual world with other users, bringing them together even if they are a world apart. The announcement also said that the company would concentrate on helping people connect, find communities, and grow businesses.
With Meta, the concept of an alternative technological realm that was once just seen as science fiction could now become a reality. Zuckerberg's Metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today's online social experiences that could be expanded into three dimensions using virtual reality (VR) or projected into the physical world with augmented reality (AR). Combining AR, VR, and fast internet will let users share immersive experiences with other people even when they can't be together. Users could also do things together that couldn't be done in the physical world.
"In the Metaverse, you'll be able to do almost anything you can imagine — get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create — as well as completely new experiences that don't really fit how we think about computers or phones today," Zuckerberg said.
With Metaverse, "you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parent's living room to catch up. This will open up more opportunities no matter where you live. You'll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut downtime in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint." Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg said that the Metaverse would be the successor of the mobile internet where everyone using it would feel present like they're together no matter how far apart they are.
So, what does the Metaverse using Meta's technology will be like?
Zuckerberg explains that avatars will be as common as using profile pictures today, but users will have living 3D representations instead of static images. The expressions and gestures are going to make interactions richer than anything available and possible today.
Simply put, a Metaverse is a social media on steroids. Instead of typing and tapping, you just need to make hand gestures to do things. In this world, users could just say a few words or think to make things happen. And instead of being redirected to a new page when clicking links, users are teleported around the Metaverse to open up new connections. It adds new layers to the world we interact with and bring us to a new way of sharing experiences.
The change in corporate name has demoted Facebook, the social media platform, to just one of the company's many subsidiaries together with Instagram and Whatsapp.