In November, Meta announced that it would be discontinuing Portal, its standalone video chat device. The decision was made when Meta announced its first mass layoffs amid a stock price crash and concerns about his metaverse ambitions.
Over the years, BuzzFeed News’ coverage of Meta and Facebook has been unwavering. rigorous and sometimes contradictory. Our reviews del Portal have also told the truth: this was a truly outstanding product. Us amado that. I amado that. Rest in power, Portal, you were a good little device.
The Portal was born into a harsh world. Released in the fall of 2018, the cambridge analitica the pseudo-scandal, about Facebook’s botched handling of user data and (in hindsight) exaggerated claims about its influence in the 2016 election, was still fresh in the public’s mind. It was also fresh in the minds of the tech press who would review the devices. For many, the idea of letting a Facebook device that was an always-on camera into your home was akin to sending your Pornhub history straight to the Kremlin.
Despite this, the Portal sold well, Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, told BuzzFeed News in an interview. (Meta declined to disclose exact sales figures, but Bosworth put the number of units sold at “millions.”) And, more importantly, Bosworth added: “This was a product that the people who bought it loved.” And it appealed to a different demographic than most gadgets: It sold much more among women and people over 40.
Ultimately, the decision to pull the plug came because executives didn’t see a path for Portal to become a massive business (rather than just good business), and with changing priorities at Meta, it didn’t make the cut. “We are very sad about that,” Bosworth said. “You know the saying, ‘It’s not prioritization unless it hurts’? This one hurts. (It’s not a total loss, though: existing Portal appliances will continue to work and be supported.)
Bosworth said that “the entire smart home category has been falling short of expectations for a while now.” He added: “I think if it goes back to where we expected the smart home to be as an industry when Portal entered the market compared to where it is today, it just hasn’t been as successful as we hoped it would be.”
