Facebook is secretly building an Android-powered smartwatch. According to The Information report, as a part of Facebook’s expansion of its hardware aspirations, they are developing a smartwatch that can send messages and monitor the user’s health. Actually, Facebook tried to acquire Fitbit, a smartwatch brand, but Google snatched it up. So it seems like they’ve ended up making their own.
Reportedly, the device to expected to launch by next year. That would be their first-gen, and it will run on the Google Wear OS platform. The report also says that Facebook is working on building its own operating system for hardware devices. So the next-gen of wearable devices may run that software instead.
Facebook’s growing hardware ecosystem also includes Oculus, a Virtual Reality headset, and Portal video chat devices. Facebook is also working closely with Ray-Ban on smart glasses, which may come out later this year. Project Aria is Facebook’s separate Augmented Reality research initiative. Facebook has over 6000 employees working on its various Augmented and Virtual Reality projects. Although Facebook shows the most interest in Reality Labs, it does have a history of wearable. I meant, Oculus and Ray-Ban smartglasses. So it’s not a surprise that Facebook is working on building an Android smartwatch, even though it never spoke about it.
Facebook also acquired CTRL-Labs in 2019. CTRL-Labs works on building mechanisms that could transmit electrical signals from the brain to computing devices. This ongoing research may factor into whatever wearables Facebook builds in the future. That includes the smartwatch, smart glasses, or future Oculus devices.
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