On October 8, 2018, Facebook Inc. announced the sale and shipment of the Portal and the Portal Plus. The second generation of Portal devices was announced on September 18, 2019; the second-generation Portal and Portal Mini were released on October 15, while Portal TV was released on November 5.
Privacy
According to Facebook, the Portal devices only record audio after the user speaks the "Hey Portal" command, and only record video during video calling sessions. Each Portal device also includes a cover that can be slid over the camera when not in use. During the product announcement, Facebook initially claimed that data obtained from Portal devices would not be used for targeted advertising. One week after the announcement, Facebook changed its position and stated that "usage data such as length of calls, frequency of calls" and "general usage data, such as aggregate usage of apps, etc., may also feed into the information that we use to serve ads". The company later clarified that it analyzes the metadata, not the content, of video calls made through Portal devices.
Reception
Critical reception
First generation
Dan Seifert of The Verge found the video and audio quality of Portal's video calling feature via Facebook Messenger to be better than that of competing devices and videotelephony services, but said that "Outside of video calling, the Portal’s functionality is rather limited." In light of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, he expressed concerns that the product is "always-watching and always-listening". Megan Wollerton of CNET praised the device's autotracking wide-angle cameras, which allow the subject to remain centered in the device's field of view. Wollerton also had reservations regarding Facebook's privacy policy in relation to Portal's video calls and wrote, "a spokesperson told us that Facebook will, in fact, track information about calls made via Portal to expand on the user profiles it uses to inform ads that show up elsewhere." In a PC Magazine review, Sascha Segan said, "From a purely technical standpoint, this is by far the best video calling appliance we've seen", and believed that Portal would be a good complement for telecommuters if it gains integration with Workplace by Facebook, a feature that is not yet released. However, Segan considered Portal a "horror" from "a policy and privacy perspective" because of the "massive abuses of data on Facebook's consumer platform". Writing for Tom's Guide, Mike Prospero and Monica Chin criticized the "large and obtrusive" size of the display, characterizing it as "dystopian" and "more at home in a Black Mirror episode than in my living room or kitchen". The reviewers echoed "Ongoing privacy concerns", but presented a favorable impression of Portal's automatic panning and audio quality.
Second generation
In Engadget, Nicole Lee complimented the second-generation Portal's subdued appearance and ability to be used in both portrait and landscape orientations. Adrienne So of Wired highlighted Portal's video tracking and augmented reality features, but denounced Facebook's inclination to "default to sharing more, not less". Segan's review of the Portal TV in PC Magazine contrasted the device's competitive video calling capabilities with its "thin" support for streaming media services, and criticized Facebook's data security record. In a negative CNET review, Wollerton stated that the Portal TV is "a solidly performing, decently priced device that just isn't suited for anyone because of the privacy concerns and increasingly alarming issues" affecting Facebook.
On January 17, 2019, The New York Times columnist Kevin Roose posted on Twitter that Facebook Portal's Amazon product listing contained five-star reviews that appeared to have been written by Facebook employees, including one who claimed to have "historically not been a big Facebook or other social media user" before purchasing Portal. These reviews were written in violation of Amazon's community guidelines, which forbid "creating, modifying, or posting content regarding your products or services". In response, Facebook's augmented and virtual-reality vice presidentAndrew Bosworth stated that the reviews were "neither coordinated nor directed from the company" and indicated that Facebook would instruct the employees to remove them.
