Social media giant Facebook’s secretive reserch group “Building 8” is working to develop a Amazon-like smart speaker with a 15-inch touch panel. The move of building a smart speaker comes as a surprise and werid as the Faceboook does not even have a smart assistant.
According to media reports, Chinese iPhone manufacturer Pegatron is manufacturing the speaker which is slated to be launched in first quarter in 2018. The device is expected to come with a LG in-cell touch screen wrapped in a magnesium-aluminum-alloy chassis.
There are details of how the speaker will exactly look and function but we believe that the speaker will be focussed on video chatting, photos and to its messaging platform.
Citing media reports, the Facebook’s smart speaker could function as photo frame and can be commanded by voice commands to like or leave comments.
Over 400 million of Facebook Messenger 1.2 billion users use Facebook audio and video calling every month to communicate with each other and introducing a touch-screen smart speaker could become a high-tech home phone alternative that’s easy for younger kids and grandparents to use.
Other tech giants have already tapped the space and have entered the smart speaker segment. For instance, Amazon with its new Echo Show variant of its smart speaker that allows users to conduct video call over its screen is already one of the popular smart devices available for home communications.
Google also has its own Google Home speaker and Apple is preparing to launch the HomePod. But none of them have a dedicated cross-device instant messaging platform the way Facebook have.
