The 33-year internet journey shows us that our experiences deepen as technology advances.
Facebook renewed its brand positioning with the name Meta and started the Metaverse journey. Here are the building blocks of the Metaverse vision. Metaverse has become the focus of conversations as Meta announced our vision for Metaverse in October 2021. Our Metaverse announcement heralded not only our transformation from a social media company to a “social technology” company, but also a technology and internet revolution. In this article, I will try to answer some of the questions we have heard the most in the last 4 months for you.
Let’s start with the definition of the Metaverse. Metaverse is a series of virtual environments where you can create, explore, interact, socialize and play games with people who are not in the same physical environment as you.
Where does the metaverse live?
While we can easily access augmented reality (Augmented Reality-AR) from our mobile devices today, we can reach virtual reality (Virtual Reality-VR) with virtual reality glasses. Today, we can experience the mixed reality (Mixed Reality-MR), which brings the real and virtual worlds together, with Target Tracker AR Effects and Location-based AR Effects on Facebook and Instagram, and with Rayban Stories glasses. We will soon be able to experience mixed reality. The intersection of the physical world and virtual elements is increasing around us, and we see that the concept of Extended Reality (XR) has thus taken its place in our daily lives.
These technologies are ranked according to their inclusiveness level as Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality. We will experience the Metaverse experience that most immerses us, in which we are transported to the virtual world, with Oculus Quest Virtual Reality Glasses Sets. Meta Horizon Venues and Horizon Workrooms, which can be experienced with Oculus Quest and downloaded from the Oculus Store, can be experienced as an introduction to Metaverse today.
Why does the Metaverse come into our lives?
The first communications that people had with computers and people with people over the Internet were text-based. With the emergence of social media, profile pictures and photo sharing entered our lives first. With the establishment of Facebook in 2004 and Instagram in 2010, we have seen more photos and then more video-based sharing.
Instagram started its life as a photo sharing application and got its logo inspiration from here. Today, most of the shares on our platforms are videos. These videos are powered by audio, music, text, GIF, stickers, avatar and augmented reality tools. In 2014, Meta, then Facebook, acquired a kickstarter startup, Oculus, just two years after its founding. Today, 171 million people in the world use virtual reality glasses/sets in some form.
In 2019, Spark AR Studio, owned by Meta, was opened to everyone so they could design Augmented Reality Filters. No matter where you are in the world today, you can design and share AR filters on Spark AR. We can give another very simple example through our messaging. While we used to send only text-based SMS, today we can send photos, videos, emojis, GIFs, Stickers, voice recordings, avatars via WhatsApp and Messenger, and we can use augmented reality filters during our video conversations.
This 33-year internet journey shows us that our experiences deepen as technology advances. Our communication, which started with only text-based sharing, has become much more immersive and inclusive today with the democratization of advanced technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. This is mainly because people prefer more content, more satisfying experiences.
In short, we have advanced and continue to advance in our communications with each other and our digital experiences. As Meta, we are leading this development, as we did in our mobile transition before. All of our products are designed to build deeper, richer bonds. From the comment you make under your friend’s photo in your Instagram feed to meeting, chatting and socializing in the same room with your distant relative on Oculus Quest, the purpose of every experience on our platforms is to create bonds.
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