Facebook F8 conference as it happened: Zuckerberg gets ready to unveil chatbots, live video and more

The tech community is waiting to hear Mark Zuckerberg's latest plans for the world's biggest social network

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, speaks at the 2014 F8 developer conference in San Francisco (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Facebook's F8 developer conference has kicked off, and the world of tech is waiting eagerly for some big announcements.

There's been a steady stream of rumours about what Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is going to unveil at the opening of the conference.

Chatbots are believed to be one of the major new products, smart conversational programs built in to Facebook Messenger that can order pizzas, book taxis and reserve tickets. We're also expecting more details on its live video streaming tool, and possibly new plans for virtual reality (VR).

Follow our liveblog below to keep up-to-date with all the latest news from the conference.

Keep reading The Independent for more detailed news from the conference in Fort Mason, San Francisco as it comes.

[12 April 2016 18:31 · Lizzie Dearden]

This is what Facebook thinks VR headsets will look like in 10 years - pretty cool.

[12 April 2016 18:32 · Lizzie Dearden]

And Zuckerberg just got the biggest applause so far - for announcing everyone at the event will get a free Gear VR headset and Samsung phone, so they can try out VR for themselves.

[12 April 2016 18:35 · Lizzie Dearden]

Zuckerberg has now left the stage, and we've moved on to more of the nitty-gritty about Facebook's apps.

[12 April 2016 19:11 · Lizzie Dearden]

The Bot Platform launches today, although only in beta to begin with. Nevertheless, there's a few bot services ready to go.The bots are finally coming, sooner rather than later.

[12 April 2016 19:20 · Lizzie Dearden]

Surprisingly, Facebook just unveiled its own 360-degree camera - the Facebook Surround 360. It looks like a flying saucer.

The camera's hardware and software will also be made open-source, allowing anyone to build one or write software for it.

[12 April 2016 19:31 · Lizzie Dearden]

And that's it - the opening event is over. There's another keynote tomorrow, but that's all the major announcements for today.Keeping checking The Independent for more news on the conference as it happens.