After a few twists and turns and then ultimately cancelling its F8 developer conference last year over Covid-19 concerns, Facebook today announced a return of the event in a virtual-only format it is calling F8 Refresh. Facebook is holding F8 Refresh on June 2nd as a virtual-only event. As you might guess by the one-day timeframe, the social network is narrowing the focus, going “back to [F8’s] roots” as a conference to help developers thrive.
The company hasn’t yet outlined its schedule, but it’s promising to showcase the latest development tools and offer a mix of deep dives, demos and panels. You can sign up for an alert when registrations are open. CEO Mark Zuckerberg won’t have an opening keynote; instead, platform partnership VP Konstantinos Papamiltiadis will get things started.
For a company so huge and influential, there is indeed a lot to potentially cover. But at least for now the focus seems to be more modest as well. Rather than big launches and major announcements, it looks like Facebook will keep the F8 focus more on its ecosystem and the developers in it. Among the areas that Papamiltiadis highlighted will be addressed, he mentioned product tools for building in Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp technical deep-dive sessions; demos, and panels.
