What is Facebook Portal? Call on WhatsApp or Messenger

(Pocket-lint) – A while back, Facebook introduced Facebook Portal, Portal+ and Portal TV, three versions of a video communication device designed to make it easier for you to connect with friends and family.  These are essentially video-calling devices that use Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp to call or message friends, family and colleagues. 

What is Facebook Portal?

Facebook Portal is a video communication device from Facebook. With the exception of Facebook TV, these devices are smart displays similar to the Amazon Echo Show.

These are devices that are styled to look like digital photo frames and to sit nicely in your home as a beautiful and intelligent display until the time comes to place or receive a call. The focus of these devices is very much on video calling and “putting people at the centre”. Facebook hopes the Portal range of smart displays will help connect more people in your life more easily. 

There are now four different models of Facebook Portal: Facebook Portal Mini, Portal and Portal+ work on much the same principle. They each have different design aesthetics, but they’re both focused on video chatting and meant to make it feel like you’re in the same room with the person on the other end of the call. Portal TV is a little different as it’s a device that converts any TV into a giant video calling screen.

As we mentioned, calls can also be placed via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, so end-to-end encryption is an option. 

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How does Facebook Portal work?

Here are some of Facebook Portal’s core features:

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Smart Camera and Smart Sound

All the Facebook Portal devices feature AI-powered “Smart Camera and Smart Sound” technology. This tech enables the cameras to recognise people and then follow them around the room and automatically pan and zoom while also minimising background noise and enhancing the voice of whoever is calling. It’s actually pretty clever. 

With a wide-angle lens built-in, this also means that the Portal devices can pick up multiple people in the room and track them as they move about. We’ve seen this in action with Portal TV and Portal+ and it’s very impressive. The company says it worked closely with professional cinematographers to ensure the panning and tracking is smooth and not too fast or jarring. 

It’s also designed to only recognise people and not follow pets, so the call won’t be interrupted by a dog or cat wandering into the room. But the company was quick to point out that the cameras only recognise humans in the room, not specific people. No data on who is on the call is sent to Facebook in any way. 

Facebook Portal is also built with intelligent microphone tech that includes beamforming to track the people talking and reduce environmental and background noise on the call. This includes as many as eight microphones on Facebook Portal TV, meaning you can easily chat with an entire family when placing a video call on these devices. 

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Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp

You can use either Facebook Portal to call your Facebook friends and connections on Messenger or your WhatsApp contacts – even if they don’t have a Portal. Calls can be made to and from phones and tablets, and Portal supports group calls of up to seven people at the same time.

When you’re not on a call, Portal can display your photos and videos, when your contacts are available to connect, birthday reminders, etc. Now with Facebook Messenger Rooms, you can use Portal to have a video call with as 50 people.  With that many people, you’ll also be placed to hear that you can now blur your background or replace it with a pre-selected image too.

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Video conferencing

Facebook has been working to improve Portal by making it easier to use to keep in touch with people no matter the platform.

The company has partnered with BlueJeans, GoToMeeting Webex, and Zoom to allow users to stay in touch with more people. 

Going live with Facebook Portal

As well as using Portal for video calls, it’s now possible to use the various devices for broadcasting on the internet. With the Facebook Live app on the Portal device you can start a stream to your own personal profile or through Facebook pages or groups.  This is clearly a nice simple way to quickly and easily stream to your audience or to your family and friends via Facebook. 

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Alexa and voice control

Facebook Portal devices come with Amazon Alexa support as standard so you have the ability to watch videos, place calls and more with voice commands.

In reality, this integration isn’t working too well at present, though Facebook says it is improving it.  You can ask it to check the weather, control smart home devices, order groceries, and more. For more about how Alexa works, and for a list of things you can do with it, check out our separate feature.

Like other smart devices, you can control Portal with a simple voice command. For Brits and Americans, that command is simply “Hey Portal” – there are then a variety of commands you can follow up with including:

  • “Hey Portal, call [contact name].”
  • “Hey Portal, play [song title].”
  • “Hey Portal, turn up the volume.”
  • “Hey Portal, set a timer for [date and time].”
  • “Hey Portal, wake me up at [time and date].”
  • “Hey Portal, what’s the weather like in [location]?”
  • And more

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AR effects and Story Time

Facebook has incorporated augmented reality effects powered by its Spark platform. The point is to make calls fun and interactive. This feature is like Snapchat lenses in that you can apply AR stickers to your face and environment to augment how they appear.

A Story Time experience works in a similar fashion to bring a new twist to reading a bedtime story remotely. Various stories are available with Story Time at the moment, with more promised in future. 

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Apps and integrations

Like most smart home devices, Facebook Portal smart devices also have a handful of apps and integrations. Facebook has teamed up with Spotify Premium, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Food Network, and Newsy – and it promises to add more soon.

The device also has Facebook Watch that can be used to watch your videos and videos from Facebook with other people on the call. 

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Is Facebook Portal safe?

No internet-connected device is safe from a hack or breach, though given Facebook’s previous controversies the company is keen to state that all Portal devices are “private by design“. You can completely disable the camera and microphone by simply pressing a button. There’s a switch on the Portal frames that allows you to either turn off the camera, microphone or both depending on your requirement.

There’s a physical camera cover that can be slid out using this button that blocks the camera off, but the hardware also includes a physical switch that disables the microphones too. So even if they’re hacked, they cannot record audio if this switch is on.  Plus, to manage Portal access within your home, you can set a four- to 12-digit passcode to keep the screen locked.

Facebook also promised that it won’t listen to, view, or keep the contents of your Portal video calls, and that video calls are encrypted. What’s more, the Smart Camera and Smart Sound’s AI technology runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers. Portal’s camera also doesn’t use facial recognition, and you can delete your Portal’s voice history in your Facebook Activity Log at any time.

Despite the news that Facebook staff have listened to Messenger clips, Facebook is keen to point out that you can opt-out of data collection and adjust privacy settings if you don’t want your data recorded.  

Writing by Maggie Tillman.

Editing by Adrian Willings.

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