Are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp changing their names to Meta?

Facebook announced on Thursday in a virtual conference that the company is going through a rebranding and is changing its name.

According to Meta, Facebook company’s new name, there will be no walls. Through the use of virtual and augmented reality, we will have the opportunity to feel closer to long-distance family members or far away friends. CEO Mark Zuckberg says the plan is to create the metaverse- where we can play, create art, and connect in 3D.

As other social media platforms like TikTok, have begun to occupy a larger share of the social media landscape, Facebook has felt the pressure to innovate. In a press release put out by the company, Meta described how the Metaverse which will be launched later this year, will allow users “to do almost anything you can imagine [... including] new experiences that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today.”

“Today we are seen as a social media company, but in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people, and the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

But what about the universe we live in? Will the names of the platforms we use on a daily basis change?

Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp

The company would like to move forward in building the next chapter, but Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp are not changing their names to Meta.

According to Zuckerberg, Facebook no longer encompasses everything the company does and wants to do.

“Building our social media apps will always be an important focus for us but right now our entire brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” the CEO said.

Why is Facebook making this change now?

In recent months, there has been an increase in scrutiny regarding the impact of the company on people, and on teens in particular. Zuckerberg responded to this public debate by saying that there are important issues to focus on in the present. However, there might never be a perfect time to look towards the future.

The goal is to have 1 billion people join this virtual world - known as Metaverse - in the next ten years.

What is the company’s new logo?

Meta has unveiled a new logo, which is the infinity symbol. The company explained that the “symbol was designed to dynamically live in the metaverse — where you can move through it and around it.”

The Facebook logo has been changed at the headquarters in Silicon Valley. On December 1st, the company will change its name from “FB” to “MVRS.”