Facebook held its first F8 developer conference in 2007. The inaugural event took place on May 24, 2007, at the San Francisco Design Center in San Francisco, California.
F8 was created for developers and entrepreneurs building applications and services around Facebook. The conference became a major stage for Facebook product announcements, platform changes, and new tools connected to the company’s social graph. The social graph concept itself was introduced at the first F8.
The name “F8” referred to Facebook’s tradition of eight-hour hackathons. The conference was held mostly annually through 2021, although there were gaps in 2009, 2012, and 2013. It moved from San Francisco to San Jose beginning in 2017, became virtual in 2020 and 2021, and was replaced by the Conversations conference format from 2022.