Is Facebook working on a smartwatch? This question is currently circulating on the web, leaving users with one question: “Why not?” According to a recent report by The Information, the social media giant wants to focus not only on messaging but also on health and fitness in 2022.
The move into the wearable market is not a surprising one, with services like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger alone, it makes sense for the company to take the next logical step in communication and not just run on smartwatches from other companies by default, but to take the capabilities of the apps to the next level. Especially the fast interaction between people, which otherwise has to be carried out with the smartphone, should be the focus of the developments and optimize them fundamentally.
But a smartwatch is more than just a communication tool, so Facebook also has plans in the area of fitness. After the company already tried to acquire the wearable company Fitbit in the past, which has now been taken over by Google, Facebook now wants to develop its own platform that is supposed to integrate the social media aspects of Instagram and Facebook in particular. Compared to the other competition, the company can finally also fall back on one of the largest communities in the world. It is speculated that there will be challenges in the future in which users can compete against each other to motivate each other.
The move to own hardware is a logical one for Facebook from a business perspective. Other tech companies like Google and Apple have brought many users into their own ecosystems, allowing them to dominate the supply. Facebook has only been a service on devices and now wants to take a different approach here. Wearables are a good way to do this, especially in light of the company’s plans for its own AR glasses and smartglasses. The smartwatch would complement the range here and offer itself as a possible control element for the other products.
It remains to be seen whether Facebook will really have its own smartwatch in 2022 or whether the report is just a rumor, but the idea would definitely make sense in the overall economic context.
