Facebook held its mostly-annual F8 conference on April 30, 2019 to May 1, 2019 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. The event is intended for developers and entrepreneurs, as the company introduces features and services that can built around Facebook.
At the conference, Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, followed by breakout sessions detailing on specific topics.
In the 2019 event, Zuckerberg addressed the past year of issues concerning privacy, security and decreasing trust in the platform, by announcing that:"The future is private."
Here, he revealed a version of Facebook, codenamed 'FB5', which would the biggest change the social network has experienced in years, with almost every single aspect of the platform is changing in some way.
The company is making changes after experiencing a brutal 2018 that significantly eroded users' trust on the social media giant.
The fifth major redesign of Facebook is making communities, or also known as Groups, to be its focus. Already having tens of millions of active Groups on Facebook, the social media's focus here is shifting to communities both public and private.
In general, Facebook is downplaying its News Feed.
Facebook also features a sleek redesign that should make it faster and more reliable, not to mention more visually appealing.
With changes to its apps, Facebook is also redesigning its desktop website to be much lighter on users' computers, using the same design language as the mobile app. Planned to be released a few months after the announcement, more updates are also expected along the way.
The redesign is also supposed to help people expand their social circles. With a feature called Meet 'New Friends', users can connect with strangers who have something in common. Facebook is also offering an easier for users to find events near them.
Facebook introduced a dating service at 2018's F8. In 2019's F8, the company announced that Facebook Dating is expanding to 14 more countries.
It introduced a feature called “Secret Crush,” where users can create a secret list of Facebook friends they're attracted to, whether or not they have a dating profile.
Then there is Instagram with an updated camera feature and less prominent likes.
Instagram has a reputation as one of the friendlier places on the web, residing on where fake news are less prominent. As the most popular photo-sharing platform, Facebook is improving Instagram to allow more ways for users to interact with followers.
Here, Facebook updates its camera interface, and adds 'Create Mode', which makes it easier to share content beyond traditional photos and videos, like quizzes. Instagram is also expanding a feature that lets people purchase products from inside the app, opening it to artists, athletes, and other creators in addition to companies.
As for Facebook Messenger, the social media is pushing News Feed, and reshaping it so users can easily keep up with their friends. Here, Messenger is having more focus on "close friends". For example, users can create a status message, or share photos with people they like and trust, to potentially making it easier for them to arrange hangout sessions in real life.
Then as for Oculus, the company didn't showcase the VR headset at the F8 event. However, the company opens preorders for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, two headsets that replace external tracking cameras with a more user-friendly inside-out system.
There are also other less significant updates, like improvements to Facebook's Marketplace, the integration of the company’s video chat device Portal with WhatsApp calls, a Clear History feature which allows users to see and delete information about which websites and apps Facebook gathered from their activities, Facebook in reopening App Review, Facebook Messenger in no longer banning chatbots, Messenger with translations, Instagram in adding a video chat feature, Instagram Direct inbox, the sales of Oculus Go and Oculus TV, VR Memories and 3D Photos and more.