Over the last few days there have been many rumors about a name change of the world’s most famous social network, Facebook. However, it turns out that the rebranding only concerns the parent company, and the social network will keep its name.
Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s new company, will develop new ideas for an entire universe of virtual reality. The name for the new universe is also ready – Metaverse (Meta Universe).
The company owns not only Facebook, but also other applications such as Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Everything will remain the same with their names, as Zuckerberg said at the presentation. Another curious remark was made by the businessman regarding the fact that in the near future users will not need Facebook to use other products of the brand.
In addition to the above-mentioned applications, the company also owns a brand for the production of virtual reality devices Oculus. In September, Facebook had already committed $50 million to create a meta-universe.
The company is currently testing a virtual reality app for remote work that will allow users to attend meetings as their avatars using a special headset.
So, Meta. From Zuckerberg’s speech, the roots of the new naming became clear – the updated company name comes from the Greek word, which is translated as “After,” respectively, meaning progressive and futuristic course, aimed exclusively at the innovative development of technology.
As for Metaverse, its concept will be based on a combination of virtual and augmented reality elements. For example, the user of the new product will be able to attend meetings and even concerts, which are held simultaneously in two spaces.
To do this, each user has to get his own avatar, a clone of himself in the new universe, which will move through the clones of all events and activities. Augmented reality glasses, new voice interfaces, gesture control systems, smart gadget technology around the user, and more will be part of this program.
The logo of the new company will be a sign of infinity, in blue. The stylized infinity is made in blue Moebius ribbon (topological object, the simplest non-oriented surface with an edge, one-sided when embedded into a regular three-dimensional Euclidean space, – note).
As for Wordmark, it is written in title case of a traditional full-shaped sans-serif typeface in black. The font of the new logotype is very similar to such fonts as Carmen Sans Semi Bold and Nexa Text Bold.
In July, Facebook announced that it is recruiting a “metaverse” development team that will become part of Facebook Reality Labs, which focuses on virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality projects. Facebook Vice President Andrew Bosworth, responsible for AR and VR technologies, wrote about this on his page on the social network. According to him, the metaverse (collection of digital worlds) already exists today. Its defining quality is the effect of presence – the feeling that a person in a digital space is nearby. He noted that the device for video calls Portal and the virtual reality headset Oculus can already “teleport” the user to a room with another person, regardless of physical distance, or to new virtual worlds. But to achieve a complete vision of the metaverse, it is necessary to build connective tissue between these spaces so that the user can remove the limitations of physics and move between them as easily as moving from one room of his house to another, Bosworth wrote.