Facebook is officially changing its name to Meta, it was announced on Thursday, October 28.
While the apps Facebook and Facebook Messenger will keep their names, the parent company that also owns WhatsApp and Instagram will henceforth be known as "Meta".
WhatsApp and Instagram will also be keeping their names - so, essentially little changes for the users of Meta's social media and messaging platforms.
The new company name, as well as its new logo, was unveiled at Meta's annual Connect conference, Time reports.
The move reflects their goal of building the metaverse, which the social media giant says will be a "hybrid of today's online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world."
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his founder's letter: "We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet, and it's the next chapter for our company too."
The 37-year-old entrepreneur continued: "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.
"Building social apps will always be important for us, and there’s a lot more to build. But increasingly, it’s not all we do. In our DNA, we build technology to bring people together. The metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when we got started.
"Right now our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything we’re doing today, let alone in the future. Over time, I hope we are seen as a metaverse company, and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards."
Elsewhere in the statement, Zuckerberg shared: "From now on, we will be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first. That means that over time you won’t need a Facebook account to use our other services.
"As our new brand starts showing up in our products, I hope people around the world come to know the Meta brand and the future we stand for."