New Facebook Portal!–Works with Alexa.

Facebook is in the hardware game!  The new Facebook Portal (and plus) is a video screen that is kind of like the Amazon Echo show.  It’s a screen that you can use for video calling people with other Portals or basically anyone with Facebook Messenger. The unit has target tracking software so that as you move around a room and talk, it will keep you on screen and when not in use, can display video and images from your Facebook feed.  This makes it like a digital picture frame as well. 

Oh and it has Alexa built in!

This part about Alexa is what makes the Facebook Portal device most intriguing to me.   I love how Amazon just keeps opening up the Alexa Voice service to as many possible partners out there.  I think this is the winning strategy for Home AI dominance. Whether or not Facebook releases any updates to the Portal becomes less of a concern for me since we know that the device will become smarter as the Alexa service continues to develop.  I don’t think Facebook will abandon the Portal though so I completely expect new features to be rolled out to it.  Right now, there are no Web Browser, Netflix or YouTube integrations but I expect that in the future.   I’d also like to see Security Camera integrations as well like we see in the Echo Show.  At this point, I’d probably purchase the Facebook Portal before I purchased the Echo Show.  I’m also hoping to see a price drop in the Show now.

Right now you can only pre-order it but Facebook and Amazon will start shipping Portals on November 8th 2018.
You can find the product link here : https://amzn.to/2EHAaOL

Let me know in the comments if you plan on purchasing one.  I’m still on the fence but I might just take the plunge.  I really like the ability to make Messenger video calls on it via voice.

If I do end up getting one, I’ll be sure to make an unboxing and review Video on it on my YouTube channel. (If you haven’t visited, scroll to the bottom left and click the logo).

That’s all for now!

– Carlo