On what date did Facebook announce its name change to Meta?

Facebook announced its name change to Meta on October 28, 2021.

The announcement was made during Facebook Connect, the company’s annual virtual- and augmented-reality event. Mark Zuckerberg introduced the corporate rebrand from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc., reflecting the company’s stated ambition to build the “metaverse,” a connected digital environment involving social interaction, virtual reality, augmented reality, and other technologies.

The change applied to the parent company, not to the Facebook social network itself. Facebook remained the name of one of Meta’s major products, alongside Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. This distinction is a frequent source of confusion: the company became Meta, while the familiar blue social platform continued to be called Facebook.

The timing also followed intense public scrutiny of Facebook’s services and business practices in 2021. Meta described the new name as a signal that its future extended beyond a single social-network brand. The corporate stock ticker changed from FB to META in June 2022, completing another visible part of the rebrand.