My colleague Alex Heath can confirm that Meta is pulling the plug on its Portal video calling smart displays and its two remaining unfinished smartwatch projects. We heard the same thing from other sources that the company was going to kill off both Portal and smartwatches.
In June, Meta decided to stop making Portal devices for consumers and instead focus on the Milan smartwatch, which was set to arrive in the spring of 2023 and feature two cameras for video calls. The first report on Facebook's plans for a wristwatch was published in June of 2020.
Meta is killing off its plans to sell Portal video calling hardware to businesses, as well as the other two watches that were in early-stage and middle-stage development.
Meta didn't reply to the request for comment
According to the executives who spoke at the town hall meeting, half of Meta's layoffs were in tech. It is not known how many were in hardware divisions. Meta isn't done making hardware, but most of its other hardware projects are in service of its augmented and virtual reality ambitions.
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