Facebook to soon unveil new video chat device called “Portal”

With Amazon releasing a whole bunch of new Alexa powered devices, the social media giant Facebook is also planning to bring a new device to take on the Alexa powered Echo devices. According to some reports, Facebook is all set to announce its own video chat device which is dubbed as 'Portal'.

As per Cheddar which is an American live streaming financial news network, with the introduction of 'Portal' video chat device Facebook will step its foot in the consumer technology department. The report further claims that Facebook had earlier planned to announce the 'Portal' during its annual F8 developer conference which was held in San Jose, CA back in May with a price tag of $499 (Rs 32,435 approx). "But the company's scandals, including the Cambridge Analytica data breach and the bombshell revelation that Russia used the platform to interfere with the 2016 elections, led executives to shelve the announcement at the last minute".

As for the features, the Portal will feature a privacy shutter which will help it to cover the wide-angle video camera. The device will make use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to recognize the users in the frame and to follow them while they move around in a room.

Portal will feature a privacy shutter that can cover the device's wide-angle video camera. It will use artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize people in the frame and follow them as they move throughout a room.

will also integrate 'Portal' with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and allow the users to watch videos, lay music, view cooking recipes and also have a look at new briefs.

As for the pricing and availability, the Portal video chat device will be available in two different screen sizes. There is no mention of the measurement of the screen sizes. The Portal video chat device with the larger display will come with a price tag of $400 (Rs 28,896 roughly), whereas, the smaller sized display will come with a price tag of $300 (Rs 21,672 approx).

Facebook has not officially released any information on the 'Portal' video chat device and at this moment this is all the information we have on the device. We will keep further keep you posted on the same, so stay tuned with us.

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