Facebook's next big thing is augmented reality, says Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook's next big thing is augmented reality.

At the company's developer conference on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the wraps off his plans to "mix the physical and digital in whole new ways" using AR, the nascent technology being worked on by Apple, Microsoft, Snapchat Magic Leap, and more.

Starting Tuesday, Facebook will give developers the ability to build their own AR effects for the Facebook app's camera. The move is a direct attack on Snapchat, which pioneered AR camera effects but has yet to open its technology up to developers.

"Even if we were a little slow to add cameras to our apps, I'm confident that we're going to be the ones to push this augmented reality platform forward," said Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg said he eventually envisions glasses that display virtual objects in the real world, like the technology being worked on by Magic Leap and Apple.

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