Facebook was planning to take on Siri with a new voice activation feature.
Facebook was planning to take on Siri with a new “Hey Facebook” voice activation feature for its own smart devices.
Users who have an iPad, iPhone, or Mac can interact with Siri without even touching the device by using the “Hey Siri” voice command which invoked Apple’s virtual assistant.
As other voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa also have similar commands, 9to5Mac reported that Facebook was currently introducing a new “Hey Facebook” wake word for its own smart devices.
Facebook had its own lineup of smart devices called “Portal” which were basically tablets or “Smart Displays” designed to be used at home on a table or desk.
Also, there’s the Oculus VR platform which was owned by Facebook.
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In a report on the Verge, Facebook announced that Oculus Quest users can have a hands-free experience when using the voice command “Hey Facebook.”
9to5Mac also reported that Portal devices already have a similar command — “Hey Portal” — which was currently being replaced by “Hey Facebook”. Just like other virtual assistants, Facebook devices started recording and transcribing what the user said after identifying the wake words.
In addition, Facebook said that the said feature was optional and was disabled by default. This, of course, raised privacy concerns since Facebook was known for collecting user data without asking for permission.
Although Siri offered a similar feature with “Hey Siri”, Apple ensured that its devices didn’t send anything to Apple’s servers until the device heard the wake command.
The process of identifying the “Hey Siri” phrase was done offline, thanks to the AI built into Apple’s own chipsets.
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