The last day of April saw Mark Zuckerberg take the stage to make the latest announcements at this years developer conference, F8. It’s held by Facebook every year for its designers and developers where the company reveals what can be expected of the social networking site in the coming year. Though it was held after a hiatus of two years this years conference pulled huge crowds and did have the announce screaming nothing but one word – mobile. Yes it was mobile apps and related fields that took center stage this year. Though there wasn’t any path breaking news here’s all one would want to know about the conference.
Anonymous Login
Facebook users can now log in to third party apps as anonymous, until they decide whether or not to provide their personal information, after thorough usage. This privacy boost feature will definitely be a welcome change among many who were hesitant on trying out these apps. An added advantage being the ability to hide only certain details from the site such as birthdays. CEO Mark Zuckerberg feels that people are “afraid to press the blue button”, referring to the Facebook Login button. He says that,
“Even if you don’t want an app to know who you are yet, you still want a streamlined process for signing in”
Anonymous login is still in testing with a few developers, but it will be available to more app developers in the coming months. Facebook seems to be taking the risks associated with apps that use personal information collected from it’s network. It will be curating new apps that use Facebook logins to make sure none of the apps are secretly posting to your wall or pulling in unnecessary details.
Here’s a video explaining the Anonymous Login:
Applinks.org
Facebook also revealed Applinks, a new way to link between mobile applications. All the app does is, navigate from a webpage to an app on your handset . Say you look up on a restaurant nearby and would like to find a way from your current location, just a click on a link in the webpage launches the Maps application on your device. Applinks just makes app to app navigation as easy as it would ever be. Initial partners supporting the new technology include Quip, Spotify, Movietickets, Mixcloud, Redfin, Mailbox, Pinterest, iHeartradio, Vimeo, EyeEm, Wattpad, Endomondo, Venmo, Houzz, Tumblr, Hulu, Flixster, Goodreads, DailyMotion, Flickr, Songkick, Fancy, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Vevo.
Here’s a video intro of AppLinks:
Facebook Audience Network
Facebook newsfeeds will now be more ad free given the launch of its very own advertising network – “Facebook Audience Network“(FAN). Much in the lines of Apple’s iAds and Google’s AdMob, Fan allows developers to make use of the ad-targeting system and generate money from their apps. The socail networking site aims at having its ads to be of better quality than others and they probably take the form of traditional banner ads in mobile apps. This reduces the pressure for the site push ads onto Facebook which might, if all goes well, lead to fewer ads in your news feed. Facebook says it will be doing all the heavy lifting, right from selling ads, to targeting and even routing payments. The ads will be coming in three formats: standard IAB banners, standard IAB interstitials, and native ad units. Facebook says that the ads are,
“designed to help marketers meet key business objectives, like driving app installs and engagement”
Facebook still seems to put users first, and to protect them, ad publishers can only show one ad on the screen at a time. They also can not disguise the ads as part of their interface, place them over buttons to get more clicks, or make it mandatory for users to click on an ad to exit a screen.
The Parse update
Parse offers developers almost all the tools necessary to create apps without the need to manage their own servers, such as storage, push notifications and much more.Parse CEO and co-founder Ilya Sukhar at the F8 conference announced that the company is lowering its prices significantly for developers. Until now Parse had been offering different tiers of subscriptions for developers but going forward there will be only one. They needn’t pay until a certain limit is reached. As part of the plan, developers will also get free access to Parse’s updated analytics package. The new analytics include a redesign of the previous version, in addition to a number of new features to get data about an app’s audience and retention. Another interesting feature that’s been added is offline data store. Now developers can create offline applications with Parse, something which was not possible anymore. Interestingly, there will be a Parse Developers Day happening right here in Chennai, by Facebook User Group. Stay in tune with 4CAST to find out more.
FB Start
Facebook has decide to extend its help to all those exciting startups around the world. FbStart is a new program announced at the F8 conference that will provide selected developers with free tools and services upto $30,000. It will be available in two tracks – Boostrap (up to $5,000) and Accelerate (up to $30,000). Everyone at the F8 conference was able to apply for the program, though it will be available for everyone in the coming months. The program was started in collaboration with Parse(obviously), Adobe, Appurify, Asan, BlueJeans, Salesforce Desk, MailChimp, Quip, Proto.io, Survey Monkey, userTesting, and Workable. This is Facebook’s first venture in helping out startups. Thankfully, the app doesn’t even need to integrate Facebook to enjoy this program.