Recent months have also seen the company looking to branch out from the friends and family angle, into teleconferencing.
Following up the recent announcement of the business-themed Workplace on Portal, Facebook this morning announced the smart display will be getting apps from four of the top teleconferencing companies: BlueJeans , GoToMeeting, WebEx and Zoom .
The popular service made its own separate announcement this morning, noting that in addition to Portal its Zoom for Home offering will also be arriving on Amazons Echo Show and Googles Nest Hub Max.
Zoom notably has launched its own teleconferencing appliance, as have some third-party hardware companies, like the Y Combinator-backed Sidekick. That solution in particular was an interesting one due to its always-on approach an attempt to better approximate in-person working conditions.After all, what are these sorts of devices about, if not trying to hammer out what the new normal is going look like moving forward.
That includes things like custom and blurred backgrounds, which are coming to Workplace and will arrive on WebEx day-of, with additional support for other apps dependent on the developers.
As the pandemic continues to wear on, however, these sorts of devices will only grow more attractive as a method for keeping remote employees always-connected.
Original article