Facebook’s F8 conference is going back to its roots. Started in 2007 as a developer hackathon, the event’s scope expanded over the years. Recent editions included several industry tracks and served as a platform for Facebook to announce new consumer products.
After a pandemic-enforced break in 2020, F8 Refresh returned in June 2021 as “a true developer conference.”
The edition focused on messaging as the future of business-consumer communication (a path set by Facebook in 2016).
Some big news was revealed: Instagram messaging API is now available to all developers. This means that social media management tools (including Hootsuite) will now be able to integrate Instagram DMs into their platforms and brands will no longer have to rely on in-app messaging.
👀 BIG news coming out of @Facebook F8 Refresh! TL;DR new @messenger API for Instagram allows brands to manage Instagram messages directly from within Hootsuite 👏 pic.twitter.com/FyXElmeDgy
— Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) June 2, 2021
Other exciting announcements included the release of WhatsApp Business API, new login paths for businesses and a new developer platform for building business apps.
For more news from F8 Refresh, check out Facebook’s summary of the event’s announcements.