![different rooms in portal and portal 2 different rooms in portal and portal 2](http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/content_images/1/portal2/portal2_testchamber01_2.jpg)
Instead, you need "Hey Portal" to place a call and Alexa to control smart home devices. I still find it confusing that "Hey Portal," the native voice assistant, can't perform all of the same functions as an Alexa or a Google Assistant. The same is true this time around, although every other Alexa test I ran it through worked as expected - from adjusting a smart thermostat to getting a local weather report. Facebook claimed Alexa ESP worked on the last Portal, but it never worked for me. Alexa functions like it does on any other smart display with the exception of echo spatial perception, a feature that's supposed to make only the closest connected Alexa device answer when you say the wake word. Use "Hey Portal" for basic controls on the device, like initiating a call, turning on in-call effects (like disco ball) and opening Spotify and other apps. Like the last-gen Portal, this model works with Facebook's "Hey Portal" voice assistant, in addition to Alexa. The Portal has a toggle switch that controls a built-in shutter to turn off the mic and the camera. You can also log into your Spotify account (free Spotify works on the Portal, but only Spotify Premium works during calls) or your Amazon account to use Alexa voice controls. Setting it up is as simple as plugging it in, logging into your Facebook account and following the prompts to add your Wi-Fi credentials - and to customize your settings.Ĭustomizations include setting your favorite contacts and managing what photos display on the screen when it isn't otherwise in use. The new Portal costs $179 (£169), making it the most affordable 10-inch smart display. The Portal is Facebook's answer to Google and Amazon's smart displays, such as the $229 Google Nest Hub Max and the $230 Amazon Echo Show. I still don't recommend that you buy into Facebook's smart display ecosystem. With the account hiccup out of the way, I dug into Facebook's Portal privacy policies and tested the new Portal hardware and features. Eventually, someone else offered their account for use on the second Portal device, but with significant reservations. Everyone else either didn't have Facebook or didn't feel comfortable enough with the state of Facebook privacy to share their info on a video-chat device. Of the seven colleagues in my immediate vicinity to ask, only one volunteered their account, and only then with some hesitation. Facebook's privacy crisis makes its Portal video device a tougher sell than ever.Facebook Portal would be great for my kid, but then I have to trust Facebook.Facebook's new Portal smart displays: Who's listening and what's happening to your data?.They just need Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, but the effects and features will be limited on their end of the call.) (The person you're calling doesn't have to have a Portal device. In addition to my concerns about privacy, I had a new problem: I needed a Facebook account to test the Portal - and someone else willing to lend their login info to a second Portal to try out Portal-to-Portal calling via Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. This September, Facebook announced a second-gen Portal and two additional video-chat products - the $129 Portal Mini and the $149 Portal TV.
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So, why would folks want to put a Facebook video-chat device with a built-in camera, microphone and speaker in their homes at the same time news of data breaches and ads with false information are flooding in? Short answer: they don't, or at least most people don't. Most recently, presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren deliberately ran a false Facebook ad to protest Facebook's lack of fact-checking in political ads.įacebook did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment. And reports of issues with the platform keep rolling in.
#Different rooms in portal and portal 2 plus
Read more: No one should buy the Facebook Portal TVįacebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal and the continued privacy questions surrounding the social media giant's misuse of user data made the announcement of the original Portal Plus and Portal last fall seem remarkably tone-deaf. Not only were the $349 Portal Plus (now $279) and the $199 Portal (replaced by this new redesigned $179 Portal, reviewed here) not compelling enough to draw me back into Facebookland, but testing them helped me realize that it was, in fact, time to grab the photos and messages from my otherwise idle account and call it a day. Six months after reviewing the first batch of Portal devices, I cancelled my Facebook account. Facebook's privacy woes make its next-gen Portal as tough a sell as the original video-chat device.