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Facebook Just Rebranded to Meta; Does This Mean Our Apps Are Going to Change Names Too?

Facebook Just Rebranded to Meta; Does This Mean Our Apps Are Going to Change Names Too?

Oct 29, 2021   •   Kyzia Maramara

Facebook is now Meta. The new corporate name will reflect its broader ambitions in virtual and augmented reality a.k.a. a new phase of the internet. But what does this change mean for Facebook and other apps like Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp? Are these apps going to change on your phones?

 

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Meta

 

During Friday’s (local time) Facebook Connect conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will change its corporate name to Meta. The social network giant is now a subsidiary rather than being an overarching brand. Other social networks like Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Oculus, and Portal are also under the parent company Meta.

 

Metaverse — the next phase of the internet

Why “Meta”? Zuckerberg says it’s inspired by the Greek word which means “beyond.” It encompasses the next steps the company is slated to make toward virtual and augmented reality which Zuckerberg calls the “metaverse” (every day we’re closer to living in a Black Mirror episode).  Zuck’s goal is to spearhead the next phase of the internet — virtual spaces where everyone can create avatars to work, play, and interact with each other. Zuckerberg’s presentation showed people attending virtual reality concerts, games, and even meetings. This combination of social media and technology will be so powerful and useful once it turns into reality.

It’s ambitious and it feels like a sci-fi movie that’s impossible to happen in real life. But that’s what everyone thought of Facebook and social media when they popped into the scene. Now we can’t last a day without doomscrolling and sharing a meme. Meta just might be on to something, metaverse just might be the future of the internet.

 

As for its logo, say goodbye to the company’s signature thumbs-up “Like” logo. Meta just replaced it with a minimalist infinity shape. Safe to say you’ll be seeing this often from here on out.

 

Does this mean the app names are going to change?

Chill out, your Facebook app will remain as it is. The same goes for Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp which will all keep their names and logos. The only difference is that now they’re all under the umbrella company Meta.

 

Covering up issues?

While Zuck’s new announcement sounds exciting, many eyebrows were raised at the timing. Facebook is currently in the middle of a corporate leak issue (one of many) brought to light by a whistleblower and former employee. But even before that, there have been quite a lot of complaints hurled at Facebook on the grounds of privacy leaks, misinformation, content moderation, and questionable business practices.

Critics are also wary about what it means to let Meta head this “new phase of the internet.” If the company wasn’t trustworthy before and they appear to make little progress in addressing that area, would we want to give them the reins in controlling the future internet landscape?

 

Here come the memes

The internet has been waiting for the new name announcement since last week. We even asked our 8List.ph followers for name recommendations and they delivered (MaritesDotCom sounds like a good name swap).

But now that the name change is official, many can’t help but poke fun at it in true netizen fashion.

 

But many have also scorned the rebranding

Facebook has been in hot water for a long time now. Many are complaining that rebranding won’t erase all the wrongdoings and failures in privacy safety the app and its management has made. How about clearing all the issues before looking forward to kickstarting the next generation of online interactions?

 

Facebook’s challenges over the years

Zuckerberg has been inundated with scandals since he created the social networking site in 2004. There was the 2016 US presidential election scandal that showed how Facebook failed to regulate political ads and fake news — something that critics claim factored in Donald Trump’s win. There was the Cambridge Analytica scandal which used Facebook’s data of over 50 million Americans without their permission. (If you want to learn more about this, check out the Netflix documentary The Great Hack.) And then this year, there was a corporate leak issue and dozens of other privacy leaks we don’t have time to dive into.

The bottom line is, Facebook might have changed its name, but unless it changes its policies to better protect millions of users worldwide, it will still be embroiled in these challenges for the foreseeable future. VR and augmented reality sound nice, but they shouldn’t come at the cost of our privacy.

 

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Kyzia spends most of her time capturing the world around her through photos, paragraphs, and playlists. She is constantly on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, and a great paperback thriller to pair with it.

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