Facebook has been really vocal about its virtual reality ambitions, but what about augmented reality? People often throw the two together because of how similar they are, and many people don’t even know that there’s a difference, but there is, and Facebook understands this. Although it’s not as important of a focus as virtual reality, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in a recent interview that Facebook definitely plans to expand into augmented reality as well.
We know Facebook has a ton of ambitions in the virtual reality space, but now Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the social networks is looking to expand into augmented reality. Zuckerberg confirmed at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit that his company is exploring augmented reality, noting that “it was father out.” Other than making a quick acknowledgement of the possibility of augmented reality, the Facebook CEO and founder didn’t have much else to say on the subject. While virtual reality is focused squarely on creating immersive entertainment experiences, augmented reality could lend itself to thousands of more practical applications in the real world. For example, AR could be implemented into car windshields to provide a constant stream of directions, or a surgeon could have their patient’s vitals displayed at all times. While Zuckerberg didn’t provide much on Facebook’s plans in the AR space, he talked at length about virtual reality. The social network creator noted VR could be the next big computing platform, which has evolved from text to photos and video in recent years.