Facebook announces new Portal video chat devices, including Portal TV

In October of last year, Facebook announced Portal, its dedicated in-home video chat device that allows people to stay connected.

Now, a little less than a year later and Facebook is back with even more Portal devices. The social networking giant is positioning the Portal family as a way to stay connected quickly and easily throughout the house, and that especially includes a new push into the living room with the Portal TV — which, as the name suggests, connects directly to the TV in your home and uses that as your display.

All told, there are three new Portal devices: the Portal Mini, Portal, and Portal TV. Here are the major bullet points, per Facebook’s announcement today:

Portal Mini

  • 8-inch display
  • $129
  • Messenger and WhatsApp Calling
  • Integrated camera cover
  • Disable Camera/Microphone
  • Control “Hey Portal” voice storage in settings
  • WhatsApp Calls are end-to-end encrypted
  • Messenger Calls are encrypted in-transit

Portal

  • 10-inch display
  • $179
  • Messenger and WhatsApp Calling
  • Integrated camera cover
  • Disable Camera/Microphone
  • Control “Hey Portal” voice storage in settings
  • WhatsApp Calls are end-to-end encrypted
  • Messenger Calls are encrypted in-transit

Portal TV

  • Uses TV screen
  • $149
  • Messenger and WhatsApp Calling
  • Integrated camera cover
  • Disable Camera/Microphone
  • Control “Hey Portal” voice storage in settings
  • WhatsApp Calls are end-to-end encrypted
  • Messenger Calls are encrypted in-transit

Each of the new Portal devices are available in the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. And Facebook says that “privacy matters” in its announcement:

Portal has clear and simple settings for privacy and security. You can disable the camera and microphone with a single tap or a sliding switch. A red light next to the lens indicates the camera and microphone are off and there’s an integrated camera cover if you want to physically block the camera lens.

For added security, Smart Camera and Smart Sound use AI technology that runs locally on Portal, not on Facebook servers.

If you have “Hey Portal” enabled, Portal listens for the phrase “Hey Portal.” If it’s detected, Portal sends a short audio recording and transcript of the “Hey Portal” voice interaction to Facebook. A trained team may review a sample to make our voice services smarter and more accurate for everyone. You can view, hear and delete any of your “Hey Portal” voice interactions in your Facebook Activity Log. You can also turn off voice storage in Settings anytime, which means that your voice interactions are not stored or reviewed. To learn more about Portal’s privacy features, visit portal.facebook.com/privacy.

The Portal devices feature things like “Watch Together”, which will let owners of the video calling devices view Facebook Watch shows, like Red Table Talk and others, together when they aren’t there with you.

Here’s the breakdown of the new Portal family’s launch:

In addition to the US and Canada, the Portal lineup is coming to the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. Portal is now available to pre-order in the US, Canada and Europe from portal.facebook.com and select retail locations. Portal and Portal Mini begin shipping October 15 and Portal TV begins shipping November 5. Portal Mini is $129 USD, Portal is $179 USD and Portal TV is $149 USD or bundle any two Portal devices for $50 off.

Facebook’s new Portal devices look fine, but of course you’re still left with the question of whether or not you want a Facebook device in your living room.

Think you’ll be picking up any of the new Portal devices?