Facebook: A look at life after the F8 conference

Back in May, Facebook (FB) announced several plans at its F8 Facebook Developers conference. The company said it would bring forth new features for various purposes from dating to tackling bullying. Some of these have been rolled out while some are yet to arrive. Let’s take a look at a few updates from Facebook, both F8-related ones and others.

Instagram

The anti-bullying filter on Instagram was rolled out immediately following the F8 conference. The filter hides inappropriate and hate-filled comments about a person’s looks or character and is activated automatically unless manually disabled in the settings.

Instagram has another feature coming up that is more recent and unrelated to F8 – a video-tagging option which the company is testing, according to a report by TechCrunch. This feature is similar to the photo-tagging option that is available at present except that the related icon takes the user to a new page where a list of all the people in the video is displayed. The option is currently available only on mobile.

Instagram is also said to be working on a standalone shopping app, as per a report by The Verge. The app, dubbed as IG Shopping, will allow users to peruse and purchase a variety of goods through the app. It is not clear when the app will be launched, or whether the launch will take place at all as it is still being developed, but if released, it would pave the way for a huge opportunity within ecommerce.

WhatsApp

At F8, Facebook announced a group video chat feature for WhatsApp, which went live at the end of July. The feature, available worldwide on Android and iOS, can support up to four people at a time.

On Thursday, WhatsApp announced another new feature which allows group admins to decide who can send messages in a group chat. Another recent update was the option to report, exit or delete groups using a single button.

Dating

When Facebook disclosed its plans of launching a dating app at F8, it sent the stock of Tinder-owner Match Group (MTCH) crashing and gave other dating apps nightmares. Last month, we got a glimpse at Facebook Dating which is reportedly being tested among Facebook employees. The feature is likely to be an added segment, like Facebook Marketplace, and not a separate app.

It will reportedly let the user choose from five different genders, offer conversation starters and guarantee utmost privacy. Also, those who try to get too enthusiastic are likely to get blocked. If the testing proves unsatisfactory, the whole plan might be scrapped.

First glance at Facebook Dating

Hate speech

At F8, Facebook said it was taking the help of artificial intelligence to curb hate speech. On Wednesday, Facebook revealed one such initiative – a machine learning tool named Rosetta which is being tested for the detection of offensive text within memes and other photos.

Facebook will now use artificial intelligence to tackle offensive memes

Others

Facebook revealed other initiatives at F8 which included the review of apps, the option to clear history and to upvote or downvote comments. As part of its app review process, Facebook removed API access to several apps on its platform two months ago. This is an ongoing process and the company is taking necessary steps to review the apps and protect user information.

The Clear History option could take a few months to be developed and released while the upvote/downvote option is reportedly being tested on select users. Until further updates, we can wait and watch.

Looking at the past three months, Facebook stock is down 15% and over the past one month, the stock is down 10%.

What did Facebook bring to F8?