Sources: Facebook is building an Android-based smartwatch with health and fitness capabilities, which it aims to launch in 2022

Facebook is building a smartwatch it hopes to start selling next year, according to people with direct knowledge of the device.

The Information 2021-02-13

Context & Ripple Effects

Facebook’s initial Android wearable plan was later fleshed out as a first smartwatch design with cameras and heart-rate monitoring, indicating that health tracking was part of a broader device concept rather than a standalone app feature.

The effort also shows the difficulty of turning that concept into a product: Meta later halted its dual-camera watch program before reviving a health-focused smartwatch project in 2026.

First-order effects

Facebook must build hardware, Android software, and health-and-fitness capabilities around a new wrist-device product line targeted for 2022.
The planned watch puts Facebook’s consumer-hardware strategy in direct contact with personal health data and fitness use cases, beyond its existing social apps.

Second-order effects

Apple’s planned Watch health additions, including blood-pressure and fertility-related tracking, raise the functional benchmark Facebook’s proposed device would need to meet or differentiate from.

Third-order effects

The subsequent halt and later revival suggest Meta’s wrist-device efforts are becoming a long-cycle hardware program, where product execution and sustained investment matter as much as an initial feature set.

The trend: Large consumer platforms are pursuing health-focused wearables as a persistent hardware layer for extending their services beyond the phone.

Discussion

@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
NEW: Facebook is building a smartwatch that it hopes to ship next year. The device is focused on messaging and health/fitness related features. It will open up yet another avenue of competition with Apple. Story with @waynema: https://thein.fo/...
@wolfejosh Josh Wolfe on x
This is pivotal moment. People will think this is Apple copycat. It's not. It's much bigger. It's a move to the UX of the future. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@amir Amir Efrati on x
⌚️👀Facebook is dead serious about hardware. ⁦@alexeheath⁩ & ⁦@waynema⁩ learn details of an upcoming smartwatch wearable it's planning to sell next year. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
Would you wear a smartwatch from Facebook? https://twitter.com/...
@bdsams Brad Sams on x
It's called Facebook Watch because it constantly watches you. https://twitter.com/...
@hunterwalk @hunterwalk on x
@alexeheath @waynema Let's stop fucking around and just go straight to chip implant
@russian_market @russian_market on x
Would you wear a smartwatch from Facebook? - Only if its steps counter mines Libra coins. https://twitter.com/...
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
@alexeheath I wear an Apple one literally everywhere I go. So probably. But it does feel...different.
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
NFW. You can't be attacking Apple to try to stop them from improving tracking prevention -and also- try to sell a smart watch that is attached to our bodies. DOA. https://twitter.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Investor in CTRL-labs, which FB bought to eventually build neuromotor tech into the watch 👇 https://twitter.com/...
@thekenyeung Ken Yeung on x
Couldn't Facebook just have bought Fitbit? https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
This puts the whole FB v Apple fight into greater focus. Like this comment from Zuck last month: “We increasingly see Apple as one of our biggest competitors.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@ow @ow on x
love too directly give advertisers access to my heart rate https://twitter.com/...
@mxschumacher Max Schumacher on x
@wolfejosh measuring peoples' pulse and skin reaction while they consume ads will be valuable to ad targeting. Learn more about your users by tracking them when they sleep. Google is already on board with the Fitbit acquisition and Wear OS.
@mattlynley Matthew Lynley on x
why does facebook need my step count https://twitter.com/...
@strngwys Roberto Baldwin on x
Mark: How many people bought Portal? FB Employee: you mean that don't work for Facebook? Mark: yeah FB E: Like 100 Mark: 100 million! Excellent! Let's make a watch! FB E: no like 100 people. Mark: (walking off to slather his face in sunscreen) 100 million! I can't lose! https://t…
@alexrkonrad Alex Konrad on x
hell yea, call it Wrist Portal https://twitter.com/...
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
🔥 Facebook Watch... coming soon https://twitter.com/...
@joshuaswingle Joshua Swingle on x
Remember that Facebook phone by HTC? Ended well didn't it 🤡 https://twitter.com/...
@jonyiveparody @jonyiveparody on x
Imagine trusting Facebook with your private health information. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@om @om on x
@wolfejosh Be as it maybe, the company has zero trust and sharing personal health issue with a known abuser of average humans is going to be a challenge. The WhatsApp debacle showed how suspicious even average humans not the media and “haters like me” have become of this company.
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
Looking forward 2 letting Facebook track my every heart beat https://twitter.com/...
@zerohedge @zerohedge on x
*FACEBOOK PLANS SMARTWATCH FOR MESSAGES, HEALTH: THE INFORMATION such creativity
@jpeguin Shihab on x
Okay, but where's the ‘competition’? Apple's best feature is privacy. I'd love to see some competition in that space. https://twitter.com/...
@tyschalter Ty Schalter on x
Absolutely—and I cannot stress this enough—not https://twitter.com/...
@leshann Shann Biglione on x
“I want Facebook to have access to my health data” - no one ever. https://twitter.com/...
@mikebutcher Mike Butcher on x
Context: In 2019 Facebook spent $1bn a startup which could read *brain signals* to control devices. Nothing to see here folks, move along... https://twitter.com/...

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