Meta Outlines Metaverse Vision and Introduces Social VR Features at Connect 2021
Facebook rebrands to Meta as CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveils the metaverse as the successor to the mobile internet. The company introduces social features like Horizon Home to bring people together in interconnected digital spaces.
At Connect 2021, Mark Zuckerberg shares a detailed vision of the metaverse as the next evolution of the mobile internet. He describes it as a network of interconnected digital spaces that enables users to do things impossible in the physical world. This immersive future relies heavily on social presence, which gives people the authentic feeling of being right beside another person regardless of their actual physical location.
To align with this new direction, Zuckerberg announces that Facebook rebrands to Meta. The company reveals that while the complete metaverse is still years away, foundational pieces are already falling into place. Upgrades to virtual and augmented reality hardware and software highlight the immediate steps Meta takes to build this expansive digital frontier.
As part of this push, Meta introduces Horizon Home, a social hub that users see immediately upon putting on a Quest headset. This space allows friends to hang out, watch videos, and launch apps together. Horizon Home joins an expanding ecosystem that includes Horizon Worlds, Horizon Workrooms, and the newly rebranded Horizon Venues, which offers live access to concerts and sporting events like NBA games.