Meta decides to drop flagship Facebook F8 developer conference this year

Meta has announced not to hold its flagship Facebook F8 developer conference this year, as it gears up for new initiatives towards metaverse.

Meta will instead organise its "inaugural business messaging event", called Conversations, on May 19.

"Similar to years past, we are taking a brief break in programming and will not hold F8 in 2022 while we gear up on new initiatives that are all tailored towards the next chapter of the internet, and the next chapter of our company too: building the metaverse," Meta said in a blog post late on Wednesday.

"Similar to the early stages of the web, building the metaverse will be a collaborative effort at every stage -- with other companies, creators and developers like you," he added.

After the inaugural business messaging event on May 19, the company will organise 'Connect' event later this year, "where we'll share the latest on our VR, AR, and metaverse platform offerings".

Google I/O develop conference will take place on May 11-12 while Apple will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC22) from June 6-10 and both will be online.

IFA 2022 is set to be an in-person event in early September.

Meta said that "similar to the early stages of the web, building the metaverse will be a collaborative effort at every stage - with other companies, creators and developers like you".