Every year Facebook holds a developer conference called “F8” to discuss its future plans and what developers can expect moving forward. F8 just happened this week and it covered some cool new ideas!

Facebook’s focus at F8 was all about Augmented Reality (AR)! It set a goal to “change every smartphone into an AR experience.” The company is working on making real world interactions more interesting by enhancing them with smartphones. Think Pokémon Go type images, but now with more than just Pokémon! The examples discussed at F8 were pretty cool!

• What if you could leave a digital note in a restaurant by “pinning” it right to the menu to show your friends what you like to get.
• Imagine if you could view hidden digital art work on blank walls around the city.
• Wouldn’t it be cool to read information about popular tourist locations right in the air?
• Who wouldn’t want to play and interact with digital 3-D objects like playing chess on a digital chessboard from any location you choose.

Facebook’s timing in announcing its plans for AR is interesting, as Snapchat just released a new feature called “World Lenses.” The new Snapchat feature incorporates AR into Snap Stories, like being able to place flowers and bubble letters around you. These two companies are really forging the path to make AR mainstream!

I can’t wait to see what cool new games and app ideas come out of all of this work with augmented reality! What exciting applications or ideas have you heard?

AR, F8, Facebook, featured, Snapchat

By Meredith Red

---

---