Facebook has confirmed that it is developing voice-controlled artificial intelligence for its hardware products, reviving an assistant strategy after an earlier experiment inside Messenger came to an end. The project was first reported by CNBC, and Facebook subsequently acknowledged that a team was working on technology for hands-free interaction.
The company did not announce a product name, launch date or complete list of functions. Its statement was deliberately broad: Facebook said it was developing voice and AI assistant technologies that could work across its family of augmented- and virtual-reality products, including Portal, Oculus and devices that had not yet been announced.
A voice layer for Facebook hardware
That emphasis makes the project different from a general-purpose assistant available on almost any phone or speaker. Portal is a video-calling device designed to sit in the home, while Oculus headsets place users in an environment where reaching for a keyboard or touchscreen can interrupt the experience. Voice control could provide a common way to start calls, find media, navigate software or operate future hardware without using a conventional interface.
The project may therefore be less a direct rival to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple Siri than a shared feature for Facebook-owned devices. The company’s wording left open the possibility of gesture input and other forms of interaction alongside speech. It also left unanswered whether outside developers would eventually be able to build services for the assistant.
CNBC reported that the work was based in Redmond, Washington, under Ira Snyder, a general manager at Facebook Reality Labs and a director in the company’s augmented- and virtual-reality organization. Snyder’s LinkedIn profile reportedly identified another role as director of a product called Facebook Assistant, suggesting an internal name rather than a confirmed consumer brand.
Facebook’s second attempt at an assistant
Facebook had already spent years on M, an assistant inside Messenger that combined automation with support from human operators. M began as a limited experiment in 2015 and was shut down in early 2018. The company also promoted Messenger bots as a way for businesses and publishers to automate conversations, although that ecosystem did not develop into an Alexa-style platform.
The new hardware-focused effort reportedly began in early 2018, around the period when M closed. It also reflects Facebook’s reorganization of experimental technology. Portal development, parts of the former Building 8 group and the Oculus organization gave the company several teams working on cameras, displays, virtual reality and new ways to control devices.
A shared assistant could connect those products, but it also raises familiar questions. Always-available microphones and cameras require clear controls, understandable data policies and visible indicators when a device is listening. Facebook had not explained in April 2019 how voice recordings would be stored, reviewed or used, so any conclusions about those practices would be premature.
For now, the confirmation is a statement of direction rather than a product launch. Facebook wants AI to become part of the interface for Portal, Oculus and future hardware, but the name, capabilities and release schedule remain unsettled.
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