Facebook now wants to jump on the voice assistant bandwagon. Initially, this is to be tested with the VR glasses from Oculus.
Trigger: “Hey Facebook”
The social media platform Facebook now also wants to bring out a voice assistant. This is to be tested extensively with the VR goggles from Oculus for the time being. Oculus is a subsidiary of Facebook. The trigger for the voice assistant is supposed to be “Hey Facebook”, the same trigger is also supposed to be offered with the video communication device Portal as an alternative to the previous “Hey Portal”. As far as voice assistants are concerned, Google Assistant and also Amazon’s Alexa are the strongest and most widespread providers on the market so far. Although Apple with its own Siri software, Samsung and Microsoft are also very active. It remains to be seen how well Facebook’s voice assistant will establish itself.
There are always concerns about data privacy with regard to voice assistants, especially when it comes to Facebook. However, the company emphasizes that the new function is an “option” that first has to be activated before it can be used. So the user still decides for himself. Doubts about data protection are of course always justified, especially with Facebook, since the social media platform is known to store a lot of data in order to profit from it. .
Assistance software first with the Oculus Quest 2
The voice assistance software is first tested on the new Oculus Quest 2, at the beginning still with limited functions. So you can use the voice to start a game, take a screenshot or display which of your friends are currently online. In the further course of development, the software will then also be made available for the first Quest generation.
However, after investigations were triggered in Germany regarding the merging of Facebook accounts with Oculus accounts, Facebook stopped selling the glasses in our country. However, Facebook continues to drive development in the consumer market with its Oculus brand. The investments and also expectations for virtual reality have been great, but so far it is still a niche business.
