Facebook is getting ready to jump into the smart speaker market with reports suggesting a launch as early as mid-year.

Currently in development the ‘Portal’ video chat device will also double as a smart speaker, and will come in two versions…similar to what Google did with the Google home and smaller Google home mini speakers, however the Facebook devices will also have a screen….and a camera.

This puts Facebook’s offering somewhere between being a smart speaker and tablet device…and could drive users to spend more time on Facebook and interacting in different ways.

It’s suggested that the Facebook ‘smart speaker’ will be launched around July, but I’m sure you’ll hear about it on Facebook.