“Your camera is a window into a world hidden behind it” – Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer, Facebook
Most of us use Facebook to keep up with friends and family, taking for granted the amazing innovations the company delivers with increasing regularity. While enhancements to the base social platform, like Reactions, are certainly changing the way we use Facebook every day, it’s the advancements in technology that wowed the crowd gathered at Advertising Week Asia to see an interesting keynote from Chris Cox, Facebook’s Chief Product Officer, on Wednesday.
Cox started things off with a few minutes on how he came to work for Facebook and how different the internet world was a little over a decade ago, shortly after the dotcom bubble burst. A “smartphone” was a BlackBerry, widespread mobile adoption was a world away, and social media was still in its infancy.
Fast forward to 2017 and Facebook is not only a social media juggernaut, they’re also one of the world’s truly innovative technology companies with both feet planted firmly in VR, advertising, journalism, and much more.
But the product Cox seemed most excited to talk about? The smartphone camera that’s already in your pocket.
The AWAsia crowd watched in awe as Cox demonstrated several amazing technologies Facebook is working on right now to leverage the innocuous camera on our smartphones to change our world, all by simply enhancing our view of it.
From invisible art installations that come to life through the smartphone screen, to amazing gaming experience viewable and playable via Facebook camera apps, to an augmented reality-enhanced view of the Roman Colosseum, Cox showed that the experiences of tomorrow are made possible largely by camera technologies – many of them on devices we already own.
Beyond the smartphone lens, Facebook’s commitment to virtual reality was represented as well. The all-new Facebook Spaces, a sort of Social Media for VR platform, gives early adopters of consumer VR the chance to interact in the virtual world in new ways, while exciting camera hardware technologies like Facebook’s Surround 360 V2 enable content creators to make exciting new experiences more efficiently and more creatively than ever.
While it’s easy to get caught up in any one of the many amazing things Cox presented, it’s even easier to get caught up in his infectious enthusiasm for all the great things Facebook is working on. And while technology is ever-advancing, it’s refreshing to see a company the size of Facebook concentrating on how to make the most out of the consumer devices we already own.
Watch the full panel, “What’s Next? Facebook in Today’s Changing World” here.