According to a new Facebook report, Facebook is building a smartwatch as part of its ongoing hardware efforts The information. The device is said to be an Android-based smartwatch, though the report does not say whether Facebook intends the device to run Google’s Wear OS. It also says that Facebook is building its own operating system for hardware devices and that future iterations of the portable software may use sooner.
The smartwatch has messaging, health and fitness features, the report said, and will join Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality headers and Portal video chat devices as part of the social network’s growing hardware ecosystem. Facebook is also working on the Ray-Ban glasses of a brand to come out later this year as part of the ongoing Project Aria initiative, an augmented reality project the company has been working on for some time. Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hardware ambitions of the social networking giant are no secret. The company has more than 6,000 employees working on various augmentation and virtual reality projects, and as part of existing hardware divisions such as Oculus and Portal, as well as experimental initiatives under its Facebook Reality Labs division. Bloomberg reported last month. And although Facebook has not expressed a strong interest in health and fitness devices in the past, the company does have a record in portable items with its Oculus headphones and future smart glasses.
Facebook also acquired the new neural interface launch CTRL Labs in 2019. CTRL-Labs specialized in building wireless input mechanisms, including devices that could transmit electrical signals from the brain to computer devices without the need for traditional touch screen or physical button input. The intellectual property and ongoing research of the company could contribute to the portable Facebook that will be built in the future – including a smartwatch, smart glasses or future Oculus headphones.