F8 2019 | The Verge

The 5 biggest announcements from Facebook’s F8 developer conference keynote

2025-01-28T14:00:54-05:00

Facebook's F8 developer conference kicked off today, and the company just finished its opening keynote. Its overwhelming theme, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is that "the future is private." After a year plagued by controversy over whether Facebook is invading its users' privacy and encouraging social division, it's pushing hard on helping people connect with close family and friends.

During the keynote, Facebook announced updates to Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook's core service. We also got more news about the Oculus Quest and Rift S virtual reality headsets - and about a new dating feature that could spark some very inten …

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Facebook’s Portal is getting WhatsApp support and launching internationally

2019-04-30T14:51:08-04:00

Facebook announced at its annual F8 developer conference today that its Portal and Portal Plus video calling devices will soon be available in Canada and Europe, starting this fall. The device will also support WhatsApp calls, and all calls will have end-to-end encryption.

The $199 Portal and the larger $349 Portal Plus launched last year at a time when consumer trust in Facebook was waning after a string of privacy scandals, and the product had to be delayed for several months in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Despite this, Facebook shared onstage today that Portal sales have exceeded expectations, and it's notable that t …

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The Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S launch on May 21st, and preorders open today

2019-04-30T13:32:58-04:00

Facebook and Oculus have finally revealed a release date for their Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S headsets: May 21st. Both headsets will ship in 22 countries next month, they'll cost $399, and you can preorder them today.

The Oculus Quest is a much-anticipated standalone VR headset that Oculus announced last year. It works without external tracking cameras or a separate computer, using a Snapdragon mobile chipset. The Oculus Rift S is a refresh of the 2016 Oculus Rift; it's not a "Rift 2," but an upgrade that replaces the old Rift's tracking cameras with more convenient inside-out tracking. Neither one is a definite must-buy, but we've been …

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Oculus Quest review: a great system with a frustrating compromise

2025-01-28T14:00:54-05:00

According to Google, the term "VR for the masses" dates back to at least 1994 when it referred to the Nintendo Power Glove and Sega 3D glasses. Several systems have taken the mantle since then, including the groundbreaking Oculus Rift, which set off a wave of VR enthusiasm in 2012. But it's 2019, and VR's acquaintance with the masses is still passing at best.

This is necessary context for any review of the Oculus Quest, another headset that's supposed to give VR mainstream appeal. Oculus' parent company Facebook is releasing the $399 Quest on May 21st, alongside an updated Oculus Rift model. After spending a week with the device, I'm convin …

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Oculus Rift S review: a swan song for first-generation VR

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

There's a new Oculus Rift on the market, and it doesn't look much like the Oculus Rift.

The original Oculus Rift was a fascinating product. Announced in 2012, it played a huge role in making virtual reality seem real, instead of just a retro holdover from the '90s. Now, around three years after its consumer release, it's being replaced by the Oculus Rift S: a modest upgrade with a new look, a few new features, and a $50 price bump.

Oculus has described the Rift S as an improvement, but not a true "Rift 2." It's coming out on May 21st alongside the Oculus Quest, a more ambitious headset with a standalone design and greater mass-market appea …

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Facebook adds ‘secret crushes’ so you can see which friends are thirsting after you

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

Facebook Dating still isn't available in the United States. But in the five countries where it launched already - and the 14 more that are joining the service today - there's a new way to see which friends might be romantically interested in you. "Secret Crush," as the feature is called, lets you express interest in up to nine friends. If that friend has opted into Facebook Dating and likes you back, they get a notification saying someone likes them. If they pick you as one of their secret crushes, you both get notified.

You can add any of your Facebook friends even if they haven't created a Dating profile, the company said. That could enti …

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Instagram will test hiding public like counts in Canada

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

Instagram announced at its F8 developer conference today that it'll start testing a new feature later this week that'll hide users' public like counts on videos and photos. The test will only be in Canada, and likes will be hidden in the Feed, permalinked pages, and on profiles. Instagram says it wants followers to "focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get." Only the person who owns the account will be able to see how many likes their content received.

We thought a feature like this might be in the works. Code hunter Jane Wong published screenshots of this test earlier this month, and at the time, Instagram said …

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The next version of Facebook Messenger will be radically smaller

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

Facebook Messenger's mobile app for iOS is about to shrink. The company said today that it is working on a new version of Messenger that will be fewer than 30MB (or about 20 percent the size of the current app). The new version of Messenger, which is expected to arrive later this year on iOS, was rewritten from the ground up, the company said. It should launch in two seconds or under, the company said. There are currently no plans to bring it to Android where Messenger Lite has been available since 2015.

The move represents Facebook's latest step to return Messenger to its lightweight roots. After years of expanding into bots, payments, gam …

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Instagram is launching a camera redesign and dedicated shopping tags for creators

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

Instagram is announcing a couple of new features today that are designed to make the app more appealing to influencers, creators, and online business owners. It's part of a broader shift within the company to position its photo-sharing app, which is now used by more than 1 billion people every month, as a kind of Facebook replacement. Younger users have for years been leaving the main app for greener, more hip pastures, and Facebook seems to recognize that Instagram is now at a scale and level of cultural ubiquity that it can begin carrying the torch - at least partially.

The first new feature, announced today at Facebook's F8 developer con …

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Facebook Messenger is coming to the desktop

2019-04-30T13:30:00-04:00

Facebook's plans to pivot into private messaging now have a desktop software component. The company said today that it would bring Messenger, its popular messaging client, to Mac and Windows later this year. Facebook made the announcement at its F8 developer conference in San Jose, California.

There are far more mobile phones in the world than desktop computers, and the pace of development for computers has slowed accordingly. But for office workers who spend most of their days using a Mac or PC, messaging is a core function, and a dedicated messaging app could keep them inside Facebook's ecosystem for hours a day.

"People want to seamless …

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