Facebook Changes Its Name To 'Meta' In Rebranding Effort; More Focus On Virtual World

The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.

San Francisco: In a rebranding effort, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday changed Facebook’s name to ‘Meta’ to represent a future beyond just its social network. “We’ve learned a lot from struggling with social issues and living under closed platforms, and now it is time to take everything that we’ve learned and help build the next chapter,” Zuckerberg said during a conference.

Giving further details, Zuckerberg in his opening remark said privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse.

The development comes at a time when Facebook continues to battle criticism over its market power and its content moderation practices. In the recent past, Facebook, which reports about 2.9 billion monthly users, has faced increasing scrutiny from global lawmakers and regulators.

It must be noted that Zuckerberg over the period of time has increasingly been promoting the idea of Facebook, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality.

Facebook in a statement said it would introduce a way for Oculus Quest users to use different 2D apps like Slack, Dropbox and Facebook while in this “Horizon Home” VR space.

The company said it was working on ways of customizing these with company logos and designs. Facebook further added in a statement that it would be bringing more work capabilities into consumer Quest devices.

Meta has a new logo as well, which is sort of like the symbol for infinity. In a blog post, the company says that the ‘Meta’ symbolise is “designed to dynamically live in the metaverse — where you can move through it and around it.”

What exactly will it mean to live in the metaverse?

The way Zuckerberg is envisioning the ‘metaverse’, it will go beyond the internet as we know it, with interoperability, avataars, natural interfaces, teleporting, Home Space, presence, digital goods being some of the key features of this metaverse.

As we noted in an earlier article, metaverse is not an idea original to Facebook or Meta as it is now called. The idea originated in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Of course, the vision Silicon Valley is selling now is not so dystopian as in the novel.

One could experience being in a digital space, almost as if it were real, and also share the space with others. Think realistic holograms, virtual avatars which are present everywhere and a holographic screen you can just access by gestures or even a tilt of your head.

Zuckerberg insists that living in the ‘metaverse’ will feel more ‘natural and vivid’. “Devices won’t be the focal point of your attention anymore,” he said.

Based on Facebook’s presentation it could be possible for two people in two different cities on the planet to attend a concert together, even attend a party with other virtual or holographic avataars. Work from home in the metaverse would have a different meaning. Logging in would let you experience the office, almost as if you were there, without having to be there in the actual physical sense.

But the metaverse is more than the ability to teleport oneself into different spaces or to experience mixed reality. One of the key characteristics of the ‘metaverse’ is that it is live and continuous and doesn’t reset. And while this might sound like the digital world will overtake our entire lives, Zuckerberg insists it will not be about spending more time on screens.