Big Changes are Coming to Facebook: Here’s All You Need to Know

Keeping up with the Zuckerbergs

www.facebook.com

Facebook doesn’t sit still for long, it’s the leading light in a business that evolves at an alarming rate, it can’t. Last week they hosted their annual F8 developer conference in San Francisco and as usual unleashed a plethora of information on changes affecting both developers and users. There’s more though, some other significant announcements have been made on both sides of the conference. In fact, there’s so much that it can be hard to actually keep track, so here’s a handy rundown of all the most important bits:

No More FriendFeed

This one was actually broken a while ago, but its impact is being felt somewhat gradually. You might not know what FriendFeed is but it’s been a part of your Facebook experience for half a decade, albeit an optional one. It’s an application designed to give Facebook a micro-blogging component similar to that of Twitter, which in 2009 was a big deal (a $50 million deal, in fact) but now there’s no need to Facebook to butt heads with Twitter in such a way, the two have (more or less) learned to co-exist.

Event Subscription

This is the one that really excites me. As of Monday, you can now subscribe to artists, venues and promoters in such a way that you are notified every time they post a new event, particularly if it’s in your local area. A separate function for keeping tabs on your event subscriptions is also being introduced. If you like to keep informed about live events as I do, Facebook was already the best platform but now they’ve actually got purpose-built functionality for it. I’ll never miss the ticket release for a Warehouse Project again, bliss.

Messenger is Growing

Facebook are really on it to expand messenger into more than just a chat app. Alongside the already-active money transfer function, developers can now add a button for messenger to third party apps, making it far easier to share details with others. There’s a business component as well, with a new function that allows users to directly communicated with customer service representatives, merchants and managers through the app, via the Facebook page of the business in question.

The Internet of Things

You’d better get used to hearing that term because it’s going to start coming up a lot. Internet connectivity is the most efficient, reliable way method of controlling electronic products remotely. This could be anything from your central heating system to a massage chair or garage door and Facebook are, unsurprisingly, leading the charge. As of F8, they’ve brought out a software developer kit which aims to build Facebook-based apps tuned for this very purpose, with the ultimate aim of being able to control more or less everything in your house using your Facebook. Amazing? Yeah. Terrifying? Absolutely.

Callum Davies

Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF

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