In late October last year, Facebook took to their Facebook Connect platform to share the next chapter for the multinational conglomerate by announcing its new name – Meta Platforms. The change in nomenclature is a direct result of their vision for playing a significant part in developing the Metaverse. Ever since, ‘Metaverse’ has been a hot topic and buzzword across social media, inspiring curiosity and awareness and noise and confusion. This begs the question – what exactly is the Metaverse?
The Metaverse enables a singular, highly interactive three-dimensional virtual reality where users can interact with objects and assets in that reality, where users can work, play, and create in unimaginable ways. The Metaverse, however, is often confused with Web 3.0, which refers more to the blockchain technology employed at a system level that completely revolutionizes the way we trade. Suffice to say; Web 3.0 will play a major role in the aspect of trade in the Metaverse itself, creating a completely decentralized mode of transaction for monetary values. This technology is said to be more secure, faster, and generally more ethical due to the fact that a central party does not affect the flow of currency. So what is Facebook’s (or Meta’s) role to play here?
Zuckerberg promises that the Metaverse is most certainly the “successor to mobile internet”, as said at the Connect conference. They aim to be the main catalysts of connecting applications and experiences into a singular virtual network that would help connect users from across the globe to interact.
Now that we know the Metaverse, the next logical question is: how do you get there? In collaboration with Reality Labs, Meta creates hardware and software to aid access to the Metaverse. Their latest product is the Oculus Quest 2, a Virtual Reality headset that allows users to enter the Metaverse and interact with the environment and other users. Meta has created “Horizon Home”, which is an embodiment of their vision for how a home in the Metaverse would look as a base point to start. In Meta’s version of the Metaverse, users have avatars that will be visible while interacting with other players. Horizon Home was our first glimpse at how users can interact with each other and objects in the Metaverse, and all eyes are on Meta for upcoming updates to this exciting new future ahead of us.
