Facebook is in the middle of their F8 developer conference in Santa Rosa, California. The leaders of the Facebook company are announcing and unpacking their newest features and offerings on the social media platforms they develop. The most major announcement from day 1 yesterday was the opening of a public development platform for the Facebook augmented reality camera. Here’s what that means.
The Facebook Camera will be the first open augmented reality platform. This means that developers will be able to make animations and images that will show up on your screen. So far, these overlays have been developed only by the company that makes the social media app itself. This means that any ideas or filter concepts must come from Facebook or Snapchat only. Any advertising has to go through the process that Facebook sends advertisers through. That will no longer be the case.
The open platform launched in closed beta yesterday, April 18. It will still be a while before we see thousands of filter options showing up on our cameras but it is absolutely coming. You can imagine companies and programmers are chomping at the proverbial bit to start putting their projects on the Facebook camera so once it is public we will see it grow very quickly. It’s going to be a good idea for parents to keep an eye on what’s available in Facebook and Instagram’s stories camera.
What Parents Should Know
An open platform means developers will have the tools necessary to create their own camera overlays and animations. This will, most likely, begin with licensed developers only but it probably won’t end there. Imagine anyone in the world being able to create an overlay that you can access in your Facebook or Instagram camera. This could result in content being available that we don’t want our children to see. Please understand that these changes aren’t happening tomorrow. This is an early warning and a reminder to always keep your eyes on what’s developing on the apps your kids use.
Conversation with your kids is important. It’s also important to keep an eye on what your kids are installing and using. I recommend following your child or teen on social media and keeping an eye on what they are posting and sharing. With their knowledge, this will allow you to be on top of any inappropriate posts that they may share. It’s also a good idea to have their passwords so that you can see what they’ve been receiving on direct message. Eventually, you’ll want to see what their most recent AR filters have been, this will only be possible by logging in to their account. Start developing the trust now so that when there is even more reason to keep an eye on things you’ll already have a habit of doing so.