Our Technical Director, Rudy Macias, had the opportunity to attend Facebook’s F8 conference last week, and today he’s sharing some of the lesser known takeaways from the event.
This was my first time attending Facebook’s developer conference, and F8 did not disappoint. There were many big announcements made by Facebook this year, but the ones that caught my eye were the tools and resources that Facebook has created for developers. The media definitely spread the word on the future of 360 video, Messenger bots, and virtual reality, but there’s so much more worth sharing.
Account Kit
It’s no news that people hate remembering passwords, so Facebook took a stab at fixing this issue by creating Account Kit, an authentication system for apps and websites. This framework allows people to register and sign in with their phone number or email—no password required. This allows developers to authenticate users via their phone number or email, at no cost to the developer. Facebook demonstrated the impact of the service with a music streaming app that saw a 33% increase of new daily registrants after integrating Account Kit. Everyone around the world uses their phones to access apps and the web, so it will be no surprise to see Account Kit grow in popularity.
Open Source
Facebook is working hard to make their products open source. There are so many reasons they could keep their tools and frameworks to themselves, but today we have access to most of their production-grade products. If you need blueprints to manufacture the next best 360-degree video camera, they are placing everything on GitHub this summer. If you need an API server framework that includes push-notifications and many other great features, they have one called Parse Server. Parse, a service previously requiring registration, is now open source. Speaking to the Parse team, this is a better step for developers because it allows a community of non-Facebook employees to be involved in these products and improve them.
Product Experts
Another really cool experience was meeting Facebook’s team of engineers and other product experts. They were there ready to give support, answer questions, and provide better understanding of their products. Being part of the conference sessions was great but being able to speak to the people behind Facebook’s technology-driven products was incredible; it’s always great to meet the people behind the products and services we use and remember that we’re all a part of the same community.
Participating in the F8 developer conference and meeting fellow developers from around the world was a wonderful opportunity. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference and am excited to become more active in the open source community.
Want to learn more about other news from Facebook’s F8 developer conference? Check out this CNBC article which quoted Rudy in recapping the event.
Read our article about How to Use Facebook Live for Your Small Business
