Portal devices were a flop, but Meta found a second use for PC users

I remember the Facebook Portal device launch back in 2018 like it was yesterday because it was the launch that had an impact on me. Not the product itself, but what it means.

The premiere coincided with the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the hacking of 50 million Facebook accounts. After the founders of WhatsApp and Instagram left the company due to disagreement with the company’s privacy policy.

By proving that he shared personal data of users with other companies, that he extracted personal data without permission, even from users who are not from the social network, Facebook wanted to put a microphone and a camera in our house place them in the living room, kitchen, bedroom…

Either she considered herself above good and evil, or she was sure that these scandals were not supposed to affect his business… and so. The number of Facebook users has not decreased. They pay unimportant multis for a multi-million dollar company, and something else.

The fact is that either because of these scandals, or because of the lack of interest in the product, Sales of Portal devices failed.

Facebook considered closing its home equipment division, but sales improved during the pandemic.

Now he has released a new feature which is turns Meta Portal Plus and Portal Go devices into a second wireless PC display.

This is achieved thanks to the Duet Display application, which is already compatible with Portal. This application allows expand PC screen, and even dragging windows from one screen to anotheralthough this feature is paid.

This can be useful if you have a Portal device lying around. But given that Portal Plus costs 369 euros and Portal GO 225 euros, it is more profitable to buy a monitor for 79 euros to do the same.