Meta pulls the plug on Portal and unreleased smartwatches: Report | Digit

After Twitter laid off half its workforce, Facebook’s parent company Meta decided to lay off 11,000 employees last Tuesday. While the company wants to cut costs and survive through one of the most challenging times, the layoffs will impact Meta’s future product ambitions. 

Meta kills its video conferencing platform and unreleased smartwatches

The company is pulling the plug on two unreleased smartwatches and its popular video-calling display platform, Portal. As per a report published by Reuters on November 12, 2022, Meta execs confirmed at a town hall meeting that the company is killing both projects. 

According to another report by The Verge, the company stopped making Portal video-calling devices for users in June 2022. Additionally, it has also shelved the smartwatches in development, one of which was codenamed “Milan” and was supposed to retail for around $349. Last year, the publication also reported that the smartwatch would feature two built-in cameras. 

Citing several reports, Meta, called Facebook back then, was working on a smartwatch with two built-in cameras. While one of the cameras was supposed to be on the front panel for video calling, the other auto-focus camera was on its back for shooting videos when detached from the frame. 

Facebook was also talking to other companies to make accessories for the smartwatch that could fit its detachable display on things like backpacks. Back then, the company had plans to expand into more consumer devices, but those won’t come to life now. 

Company to focus on Metaverse-related products

About 46% of the company’s recent layoffs were related to tech, as reported by Reuters. Although we do not know what percentage of employees were in the hardware development departments, the company is still pursuing some of its product projects in the form of the latest Quest Pro headset and others related to augmented and virtual reality. 

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