MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook on Friday hosted an interactive product showcase called ‘Hotspot’ for the Facebook community to experience in Mumbai. The event, the company said, brings to life Facebook’s mission, shared across its family of products and apps, which is to make the world more open and connected.The event centres on three themes: Me, My Community and My World. Featured products include Facebook Live, Facebook Lite, Full Camera, 360 Photos, Groups, Events, Oculus, Instagram, WhatsApp as well as a suite of safety and security tools, including Safety Check, Community Help, Safety Center, Parents Portal, Bullying Prevention Hub and Suicide Prevention tools.
Adit Vaidya, product manager at Facebook, said the event served as an opportunity for the company to listen to and receive feedback from the community. Facebook’s recent focus he said, was on building social infrastructure for the various communities that the platform has fostered and to continue to build tools for them.
He said that Facebook has helped create a variety of communities around different social causes like the Clothes Box Foundation, Stop Acid Attacks, Happy Birthday Bharat and Wonderful Moms. Others include Teachers Help Teachers, which provides resources and guidance for thousands of teachers across India. Mr. Vaidya said that the feedback Facebook had received from various users is that these communities helped them find people with similar problems and interests, and they wanted tools to help them discover these communities more easily.
“India is a very important country to Facebook, and we’re proud to have more than 184 million monthly active people in India who use Facebook to connect with their friends and family, and to build supportive communities online and offline,” a statement from the company said.
Facebook also made some India-specific announcements related to Facebook Lite and local camera effects at the event.
The Reactions feature is rolling out to Facebook Lite, the company’s lightweight app for Android that can be used in places that lack reliable connectivity. Facebook reactions, which include Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry, were first launched last year, and the company says that till date, they have been used 300 billion times in posts on the social network.
The company also announced that Facebook Camera is getting India-specific camera effects. “In addition to the frames and effects that come as standard in the Facebook camera, we’ve designed several custom effects for India, so people can create and share photos and videos that showcase the expression of namaste as well as capturing geo-specific experiences in Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and other places,” the statement said.