Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on Thursday that the company is working on a variety of products that will utilize voice controls.
Zuckerberg discussed upcoming voice-controlled products at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in response to a question about whether Facebook was working on an A.I. voice assistant.
“I imagine there are going to be more products that we build where voice is going to be an important interface over the coming years,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re working on a lot of different things around this.”
Facebook’s Portal video-calling devices, which launched in late 2018, use Amazon’s Alexa as a voice assistant to allow users to make hands-free calls. But the social network is one of the only major players in Silicon Valley that doesn’t have an artificially intelligent voice-controlled helper of its own. Along with Alexa, there’s Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana, to name a few.
In April, CNBC reported that the company was working on its own voice assistant, a project led by its augmented reality and virtual reality group. The company has also invested heavily in artificial intelligence research, including acquiring the A.I. assistant startup Ozlo in 2017.
A Facebook voice assistant could majorly disrupt the ongoing voice battle between major tech firms, especially if it’s included with the company’s app — which is already on billions of phones.
“You can look at where the product road map is likely to go on this, and see why this would be a very useful and an important way where people are going to want to interact with more technology that way,” Zuckerberg said.
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
I have lost count of how many times I have gone to bed thinking I will finally sleep on time, only to somehow end up scrolling Instagram or X again. A few minutes turn into an hour, then another, and before I notice, it is 2 or 3 a.m. The next morning, I am usually annoyed with myself because I could have just slept and felt considerably better for the day ahead.
It is also a surprisingly hard habit to beat. Knowing you should put the phone down does not always help once it is already in your hand. Brick Night is a new gadget built around that exact problem. Instead of relying on you to remember to turn on an app blocker, it automatically restricts selected apps and websites when your phone enters your chosen sleep space during the hours you set.