Facebook: Not Just a Social Network Anymore – AARP News

Watch a demonstration of Facebook Spaces here:

Of course, youll need certain virtual reality gear before you can even visit Spaces. For now, its available only to people who own the Oculus Rift headgear, and Facebooks teaser videos show people also wearing Oculus Touch handsets, which allow participants to manipulate objects in VR.

Virtual reality currently occupies a fairly small niche among consumers, but analysts expect it to go mainstream soon, and with Spaces, Facebook aims to be ready. The company is also positioning itself at the forefront of augmented reality, which, instead of building a virtual world, allows users to manipulate the physical world around them using the Facebook camera app and their smartphone. AR has proved a tough nut to crack (remember the now-discontinued Google Glass?), but last summers Pokmon Go phenomenon revealed its huge potential, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions many uses.

Think about how many of the things around us dont actually need to be physical, Zuckerberg told the New York Times this week. Instead of a $500 TV sitting in front of us, whats to keep us from one day having it be a $1 app?

The virtual and augmented-reality ventures point toward Facebooks future, but the company announced updates to its Messenger chat application, too, that will go into effect immediately.

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Facebook: Not Just a Social Network Anymore - AARP News