Facebook accidentally leaked a load of its new announcements early
REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
As TechCrunch's Josh Constine reports, the official F8 app appears to have sent out a notification to attendees ahead of time, detailing what they can expect at the conference. It reads:
The Garage and Demo areas are now open! Just revealed: Parse for IoT, Messenger as a Platform, and the Teleportation Station.
Here's a screenshot of it:
Whoops! Facebook just pre-announced its big initiatives from F8. So what's a teleportation station? #StarTrek? pic.twitter.com/kcO5NXmKht
- Ian Sherr (@iansherr) March 25, 2015
What does it mean? For starters, "Messenger as a Platform" confirms the rumour currently circulating that Facebook is planning to turn its Messenger app into a platform that developers can build upon. Rival messaging apps Line and WeChat already do something similar. The change could let users pay their phone bill, control their hotel room, or buy movie tickets without ever leaving the app.
"Parse for IoT," meanwhile, refers to Facebook's app building platform Parse. It looks like the social network is going to expand it to the "Internet of Things" ("IoT") - the push to create Internet-connected devices and home appliances like fridges, thermostats, and lighting. As interest in the area grows, it sounds like Facebook doesn't want to be left out.
As for the "Teleportation Station?" That's not clear. But Constine's guess seems credible - that "Facebook is taking its Oculus [Rift virtual reality headset] activities up a notch, and is inviting developers along on the journey."
This is the second leak from Facebook in less than a week. Android Police recently got their hands on a screenshot of a banner ad appearing in the Facebook app advertising an as-yet unannounced Phone app that would replace the user's default dialer.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also released a video on his profile about the conference:
We're kicking off our annual F8 developer conference tomorrow in San Francisco. We'll be talking about all the ways we'...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, March 24, 2015
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