Previously, there were rumors that Facebook was working not just on a digital voice assistant but on a smart speaker itself, to rival those of Amazon’s Echo devices, Google Home, and other players in a growing market. But now there are rumors that they might be focusing on something where they will probably be the first if it pushes through: a video chat device. It will have a laptop-sized touchscreen but its primary purpose would be for users to have video chats or calls whether for work or just for the home.
While we already have several apps on our smartphone or tablet that can do video calls or chats for us, this will probably be the first dedicated device that is mainly for that. The large screen and smart camera technology is meant to make people feel like they’re talking to the other person in the same room. It is also rumored to have wide-angle camera lens, microphones, and speakers that will be powered by artificial intelligence. Some insiders are saying that they are even looking into tech that will allow the camera to automatically scan the screen for people’s faces and objects.
Instead of developing a platform of their own, it looks like Facebook will instead just run it on Android, probably to save time and money. The Building 8 lab, which was set up for Facebook to develop its own hardware line, is said to already have a protoype for the device and may even announce it at the next F8 developer conference in the spring.
The other project that Building 8 is developing is a home speaker which will have its own voice assistant. However since there are already a lot of products like that, they would reportedly rather focus on the video chat device. Of course there’s no official statement from Building 8 yet, so we’ll have to wait and see,
VIA: Bloomberg
