This week we attended Facebook’s F8 Developers Conference in San Jose, California, exploring all things social, messaging, and the awesome developments being made in Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR & AR). The future is coming up fast and we’re giving you a behind the scenes scoop on what our guy on the ground learned.
We arrived fresh in the morning at 8am. F8 was held at the Convention Center in downtown San Jose. While the weather wasn’t the best, nothing could dampen the atmosphere and high energy.
Once inside, we got ourselves checked in and did some exploring…after coffee and croissants of course. The main conference hall wasn’t open just yet, but there were still plenty of booths to explore.
We caught the news team getting powdered up for the first big day
At 9:00 it was time to head across the street to the Civic Center for the keynote speech. The line to get in stretched 2 blocks around the corner.
The arena was packed but we were able to grab seats with a good view.
Then the man of the hour appeared, Mark Zuckerberg in flesh and blood. The coincidence of the timing for the movie F8 (Fast and the Furious franchise) and Facebook’s F8 was not lost on anyone.
Mark announced some incredible upcoming developments in Messenger, Oculus, and Facebook’s entrance into the Augmented Reality (AR) space using cameras in all Facebook apps. We all dream of having cool AR glasses and smart contact lenses, but for now, we’ll have to rely on our smartphone cameras to enhance the reality around us. One thing’s for sure: People are going to be using their phones a lot more to explore the beginnings of AR and Anker will be there to keep us all powered.
After the keynotes, it was back to the convention center to do some exploring. We met up with the Messenger teams to discuss our awesome new Anker Chat. If you don’t know, we just released Anker Chat on Facebook Messenger, our automated chat bot that helps you find the perfect Anker gear and buy directly on Facebook. Check out our blog post here for more details!
We kept moving and attended workshops and demos. Facebook announced Facebook Spaces, a new Social VR where you can create your own avatar and hangout with your friends and family virtually through VR. But we have to admit, while VR is the newest and coolest thing, nothing is more hilarious than watching someone poke around at things that aren’t “there”.
After a long day it was time for Happy Hour and networking. We were then herded back to the Civic Center auditorium for a special announcement. Nothing like a surprise performance by Chance the Rapper to end the night.