It seems that the social media giant, Facebook, is dipping its toes in the consumer hardware market. With a patent application published about a modular electromechanical device, it looks like Facebook’s patent can use a microphone, speaker, microphone, touch display, GPS, and smartphone capabilities.
Many members of Google’s Project Ara team are now working at Facebook’s secretive Building 8 group. The social media giant’s consumer hardware lab is also working on sci-fi projects like the ability to type with thoughts alone.
It’s not the first time that a company wanted to introduce a modular smartphone to the market. Aside from Google’s now suspended Project Ara, LG and Motorola has also introduced modular smartphone market in the form of the LG G5 and the Moto Z, respectively. Although the success of these modular smartphones aren’t exactly mainstream and their modularity only extends to adding more accessories to the phone instead of completely personalizing your experience, we’re hopeful that we’re going to see even more modular smartphones in the future.
Hopefully there are no built-in ads in Facebook’s modular device.
