Surprising nobody, Facebook is rebranding itself as Meta.

The information got here on the very finish of this 12 months’s Facebook Connect occasion, following an unnecessarily long spiel by CEO Mark Zuckerberg about why the way forward for expertise lies within the so-called metaverse. As for why Zuck desires to vary the identify? Apparently, the identify Facebook makes folks assume an excessive amount of of the social community and doesn’t replicate the totality of his final ambitions for the corporate.

“Today we’re seen as a social media company. Facebook is one of the most used technology products in the history of the world. It’s an iconic social media brand,” Zuckerberg writes in a letter in regards to the Meta rebrand. “Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone the future.”

Folks have been fairly positive the identify change was coming for a while now. Not solely had Facebook bought the domain meta.com, however Zuckerberg himself has additionally been banging on in regards to the metaverse—a world the place folks work together with one another by way of AR and VR—for months now. Zuckerberg not solely revealed the brand new brand for the corporate, he additionally famous that since meta is Greek for the phrase “beyond” the corporate’s providers would not necessitate a Facebook account. Bloomberg anchor Caroline Hyde additionally tweeted that the corporate would start buying and selling as ‘MVRS’ beginning Dec. 1, 2021.

“The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection,” reads Facebook’s Meta page. “Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.”

Throughout his keynote, Zuckerberg touched on some sci-fi-esque ideas, starting from wristbands that may learn your thoughts, to each photorealistic and stylized avatars. He additionally doubled down on the metaverse the place folks will be capable of do such cursed actions as view NFT galleries, obtain the most recent “merch,” and work together with avatars of celebrities. He additionally waxed poetic in regards to the metaverse financial system, which for some motive includes YouTube influencers promoting perfumes known as “Cuffing season.” (Question: How does one scent scents within the metaverse?)

In phrases of {hardware}, Zuckerberg additionally referenced “Project Cambria”, a higher-end model of the Oculus Quest 2. You could have seen it earlier this month, as leaked renders. He additionally highlighted the not too long ago launched Ray-Ban Stories, its sensible sun shades collaboration with Essilor Luxottica. And he referenced a extra superior sensible glasses mission however said we have been fairly removed from seeing them as a myriad of sensors and parts must be shrunk to suit a 5mm body.

Naturally, Zuckerberg admitted that numerous the fantastical issues proven in at present’s keynote are years, maybe even many years from fruition. One may surprise why Zuckerberg is so eager to leap the gun when the end line is to date into the longer term. Well, Zuck had a solution for that, too.

“From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”

Sure, buddy. You’ll all the time be Facebook in our shriveled hearts.