Facebook will soon allow developers to build chatbots inside its Messenger app to enable users to communicate with businesses directly. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg initially plans to get users to talk to artificially intelligent bots on Facebook’s Messenger application. In the longer term, he sees people interacting with virtual representations of physical objects, he said in a speech on Tuesday at the social network’s annual F8 developer conference at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

"A lot of the things we think about as physical objects today, like a TV, will actually just be a $1 app in an app store," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg outlined his 10-year road map for all of Facebook’s products, from messaging to virtual reality.

He encouraged businesses to build bots for Messenger saying that communicating directly with customers via the chat service will replace downloading businesses’ apps on phones.

Facebook is launching the Messenger Platform (Beta) with bots and a new Send / Receive API.

Bots can provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customized communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages all by interacting directly with the people who want to get them.

The Messenger Send / Receive API will support not only sending and receiving text, but also images and interactive rich bubbles containing multiple calls-to-action. Developers can also set a welcome screen for their threads to set context as well as different controls. Starting today, all developers and businesses will have access to documents to build bots for Messenger, and submit them for review. Facebook will gradually accept and approve submissions.

Facebook has also built powerful discovery tools such as plugins for websites, usernames and Messenger Codes and a prominent search surface in Messenger. Additionally Facebook News Feed ads will enable the opening of threads on Messenger and a new customer matching feature will allow messages that are usually sent through SMS to be sent on Messenger.

Last but not least, the availability of Wit.ai’s Bot Engine will enable developers to build more complex bots that can interpret intent from natural language, and continuously learn to get better over time.

360-degree camera

Facebook also today introduced its latest piece of hardware: the Facebook Surround 360 camera. The device will capture footage then render it online via web-based software created specially for it.

The camera will not be for sale; instead Facebook will make the design specs and stitching code available on GitHub this summer.

The rig has 14 cameras around its edge, one fish-eye camera pointing up and two cameras pointing. Facebook says the camera produces "truly spherical video." And thanks to the amount of cameras on the rig, it captures the stereoscopic images needed for 3D.

A software will stitch together the images in 4K, 6K and 8K for each individual eye, according to Facebook.

Other announcements made today by Facebook included:

• Profile Expression Kit: People can now use third-party apps to create fun and personality-infused profile videos with just a few taps. The closed beta kicks off today with support for six apps: Boomerang by Instagram, Lollicam, BeautyPlus, Cinemagraph Pro by Flixel, Lollicam, MSQRD, and Vine.
• Free Basics Simulator & Demographic Insights: It’s now easier for developers to build for Free Basics with the Free Basics Simulator, which lets them see how their service will appear in the product, and Demographic Insights, which helps them better understand the types of people using their services.
• Account Kit: Account Kit gives people the choice to log into new apps with just their phone number or email address, helping developers grow their apps to new audiences.
• Facebook Analytics for Apps updates: More than 450,000 apps already use this product to understand, reach, and expand their audiences, and Facebook is now introducing more features to help developers and marketers grow their businesses with deeper audience insights, and push and in-app notifications (beta).
• Quote Sharing: Quote Sharing is new way for people to easily share quotes they find around the web or in apps with their Facebook friends.
• Save Button: The Save Button lets people save interesting articles, products, videos, and more from around the web into their Saved folder on Facebook, where they can easily access it later from any device.