Facebook 15-inch Touch Screen Smart AI Speaker Rumored To Battle Amazon Echo And Google Home

Facebook’s device would allegedly feature a massive 15-inch display, which makes us think that the actual “speaker” portion may be more of an afterthought. The device would incorporate touch functionality and voice recognition that would allow Facebook users to create posts, comment on posts, and even like posts of your friends and family members by speaking aloud. 

It’s also highly likely that such a device would incorporate a front-facing camera that would allow you to easily make video calls with your friends with the dominant Messenger chat app. If this rumor turns out to be true, such a device could serve as a focal point for social media interactions in a home, although things could get tricky with a large family trying to manage multiple accounts from a single device.

Amazon Echo Show

There’s also the problem of deftly integrating such a large screen into your home’s decor. A device like an Amazon Echo Dot, Google Home or even the Apple HomePod can easily blend into its surrounding without drawing much attention to itself. There will be no way to “hide” a 15-inch display looming in your kitchen, living room, or bedroom for that matter.

Perhaps we’ve being a bit pessimistic about the idea of a 15-inch smart speaker from Facebook, but you can’t blame us considering the utter failure of its first foray into the hardware business — the HTC First “Facebook” phone.  If it does come to fruition, however, it will ship in the first quarter of 2018 according to DigiTimes.

This smart speaker isn’t the only device currently in development at Facebook’s secretive Building 8. The group is also reportedly working on a mobile, modular device that could turn out to be either a smartphone or a different type of smart speaker.