Facebook has been resting idle for sometime when it comes to AI voice assistants, but the social network is about to break its silence.

Say ‘Aloha’

Even though its smart speaker has been shrouded in secrecy for some time, Facebook is ready to launch its own speech recognition feature for Facebook and Messenger called Aloha.

Code discovered within both the Facebook and Messenger Android apps revealed the precursor signs of a new voice interface.

According to Facebook spokesperson Ha Thai, “We test stuff all the time — nothing to share today but my team will be in touch in a few weeks about hardware news coming from AR/VR org.”

Sight and sound

With Facebook’s Oculus Connect 5 conference coming up on September 25, it's likely that a big reveal is on its way. We reckon it's all tied into the new video chat smart speaker: The Portal.

The Portal is suspected to be based on a patent invented by Baback Elmieh and acquired by Facebook in 2016. The device was allegedly meant to launch in May but put on hold amongst the security scandal.

Facebook wants to make its mark in a big way by bringing voice transcription, AI assistance, and video communicating into the future. Unless the Amazon Echo grows a camera, things may be about to get interesting.

What do you think about Facebooks push into voice applications? Would you be inclined to purchased their smart speaker/camera? Let us know in the comments below.