NEW YORK: It’s rare that a new gadget these days serves a true need. Rather, it creates a want.
You certainly don’t need the Facebook Portal, whose primary purpose is to let you make the types of video calls you can already make on Facebook’s Messenger app. And given the company’s poor record on user privacy, do you even want it? Or a similar device from Amazon or Google?
The Portal is part of a new category of gadgets best described as screens for making video calls, listening to music and responding to voice commands for tasks you can also do on your phone. Unlike tablets, these microphone- and camera-equipped screens are meant to rest at a fixed location in your living room, kitchen or, gasp, your bedroom.
If you are a tech trailblazer willing to try new things — and have no qualms on privacy — here are some things to consider.
WHY HAVE ONE
Facebook’s $349 Portal Plus is a great device for making video calls using Messenger. It’s also gigantic — 15.6 inches, measured diagonally, or roughly the size of the window of many microwave ovens. There’s also a smaller sibling, simply called the Portal, at $199.
Both models are designed to do one thing and one thing well — let you chat with other people on their own Portal or through the regular Messenger app. Yes, the Portal can do a few things more, such as tap Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, but these features feel tacked on, much like trying to cook breakfast sausages with a toaster created just to cook hot dogs.
Unless you are in a long-distance relationship and want to spend hours each evening gazing into your sweetheart’s eye (while also getting dinner and laundry done), you can certainly live without one, just as you can live without a hot dog cooker. That’s especially true if you are concerned about the number of screens in your home, especially screens that could be watching you.
Google’s Home Hub ($129) and Amazon’s Echo Show ($230) can do a lot more, but their video-calling capabilities aren’t as good as the Portal’s. With Home Hub, for instance, you can see the person calling you, but the device itself has no camera for two-way videos.
If video calling is your thing, you’re better off with a Portal. The device’s camera can recognize people in a room and follow them as they move around. So you can literally pace up and down while you argue with your mother. (Facebook says it doesn’t use facial-recognition technology to identify individuals.)
Portal also has a cute “story time” feature that adds face masks and other animation while you to kids on the other side of the call.
The Google and Amazon devices don’t do either.
SILOED SYSTEMS
All three devices allow you to add multiple users, so different people in your household can call their circle of friends. But you’re locked into that company’s messaging system.
Try explaining to your 87-year-old grandfather why he can’t FaceTime you on the Portal or Skype on the Home Hub. Hell will freeze over before you can get him to sign up for Facebook just to chat with his great-grandchildren. And you haven’t even mentioned the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal yet.
The good news is you can make calls from these devices to smartphones, though in the Portal’s case, you need the device to tell the animated stories. Traveling parents likely won’t be lugging one to read to their kids at home.
As for compatibility, Facebook’s Messenger has more than 1 billion users, and many of your friends are likely already on it, at least in the United States. But Portal doesn’t work with Facebook’s WhatsApp, which is popular overseas. Setting up the device is relatively simple.
The Home Hub works with Google’s Duo messaging service, so friends and relatives will have to at least install the Duo app on their phones. It’s also difficult to set up. After much cursing and online searches for the right settings, I still get error messages. Google press representatives didn’t immediately respond to help requests.
On the Echo Show, the recipient of your call needs to have the Alexa app, if not an Echo device with a screen. You need to set it up on a phone first by giving Alexa access to your contacts list and making sure this person is on it. You can also call others on Skype after connecting your Skype account.
PRIVACY MATTERS
Clearly a lot of thought went into making the Portal optimal for connecting with friends and family. It’s just a shame that it comes in a year full of privacy scandals for the company.
True, Google has had its share of privacy issues this year, including an Associated Press report that it tracks people’s location even when they tell it not to. But with Facebook, it’s something new every few weeks, culminating with revelations this week from The New York Times that Facebook shared user data with more than 150 other companies without people’s explicit permission.
While it’s possible to use Messenger on the phone without having a Facebook account, Portal still requires one. Facebook says it’s to enable other features, such as displaying Facebook photos on your Portal. But these features aren’t essential to video calling — just essential to fold the Portal experience into Facebook’s massive advertising system.
Facebook says it doesn’t listen to, view, record or store the content of your calls, so if you believe Facebook — and that’s a big if — it’s not going to try to target ads based on whom you talk to or what’s hanging on your walls in the background.
But other information, such as the length and frequency of your calls, is fair game and may be used for advertising purposes — such as ads for video-calling services.
No doubt to address privacy concerns, Facebook has included a plastic cover for the Portal’s camera. You can also turn it off using a button.
But promises and plastic covers aren’t enough when Facebook has shown carelessness with its users’ data over and over.
Privacy and other matters with Facebook’s video-call gadget
Privacy and other matters with Facebook’s video-call gadget
- True, Google has had its share of privacy issues this year, including an Associated Press report that it tracks people’s location even when they tell it not to
Saudi who swapped ejection seats for tech reviews — and topped KSA charts
- In an exclusive interview with Arab News, the host of ‘2You’ and ‘Up To Date KSA’ talks about digital wellness, AI’s future, and his plans to fill the gap in Arabic tech content
- Top Arab content creator in Saudi Arabia’s 2025 top 10 most-viewed YouTube channels describes milestone as ‘shockingly’ positive
LONDON: Speaking to Faisal Al-Saif, a self-described tech lover, one of the least likely things you expect to hear is advice on disconnecting from technology.
Yet the idea of a “tech diet” — more commonly known as digital wellbeing — takes on added weight when it comes from someone whose work revolves around gadgets and who relies on social media as their primary platform.
Beyond this seemingly analytical, Web 1.0-style perspective, Al-Saif draws on more than two decades of experience as a tech expert — or, in today’s terms, a content creator.
“I’m an early believer that technology is here to connect us more, to make the world even smaller than what it is, and make us just more active, more productive, and have more time for our religion, for our families and for our actual lives,” Al-Saif told Arab News.
Al-Saif trained as an aircraft engineer at BAE Systems, where he specialized in ejection seats for Royal Saudi Air Force jets, before entering broadcasting in 2004, hosting and producing KSA2’s English-language “2You” and, later, the technology show “Up To Date KSA.”
In 2009, he pivoted to YouTube — a platform with more limited reach and no monetization at the time — to help fill the gap in Arabic tech content.
“Back then, if you searched about a device or a system or a piece of information, the main language you would find the result in was English. So, I just started creating a channel and putting some good content in (both) Arabic and in English,” he said.
This approach required filming videos twice. Initially, videos in English drew more views, while Arabic lagged, but that shifted month by month as Arabic content gained traction.
“To put it in perspective, back then, it wasn’t a source of income — not a main, not a minor, not a partial.”
Today, Al-Saif’s channel delivers straightforward reviews that guide viewers on whether to buy or avoid products based on their needs, not brand pressure.
“I love creating content that gives value to the people. I love simplifying information. I love tech in a crazy way,” he said. “I like to see new tech, test it, be an early adopter of it. Tell people, ‘This is good because of this, and (that) could have been better with those implemented.’ Tell people to buy or not to buy based on their preferences, not based on companies and what they want to push.”
Creators typically earn through ad revenue, fan funding, product placement, and sponsorships, though Al-Saif distances himself from the “influencer” label.
“Part of it is that struggle we went through throughout the years, of trying to create valuable business propositions for everybody who works with us, being very fair and honest about what I present, and trying to help companies, just to help companies. Not seeking business.”
Earlier this month, almost two decades after starting his channel, Al-Saif was named top Arab content creator — and the only regional entry — in Saudi Arabia’s 2025 top 10 most-viewed YouTube channels, a milestone he described as “shocking” in a positive sense.
“Being on that top 10 list gives me a cool push after 16 years,” he said of his UTD Saudi channel, which has 8.92 million subscribers.
“(When) I go into a hospital, I find a lot of Saudis that know me. But also, I find some Filipino nurses coming to me (telling me), ‘I watch your videos.’ I like that kind of diversity (which) is only possible on YouTube and educational content.”
Al-Saif views YouTube as a modern visual library to help informed decisions. While social media shifts toward short-form videos, he believes the platform is resisting this trend.
“If it’s all short-term content, it’s us supporting that short attention span (which) is being developed with people.”
He champions long-form reviews, beginning with a brief story, then details, to encourage informed decisions. By contrast, he argued, three-second or ultra-short videos may be excellent at grabbing attention, but are largely useless for serious decisions, “unless (perhaps) it’s a cooking video.”
In 2012, after seeing an opening, Al-Saif left BAE Systems — “initially only for two years” — to launch Tech Pills Productions, helping companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and HP create content, a move that boosted his career. He later diversified into tech startups, though he shuns the “investor” label.
“I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur or an investor. I just see myself as a tech lover,” he said. “I try to push myself into diversifying the business and creating other pillars. So, I went into other types of investments, working and developing applications with different partners, and all of that went well. That part made me more comfortable creating content for the joy of it instead for the business side of it.”
In 2021, Al-Saif backed Karaz (Arabic for “cherries”), an EHR platform using IoT, AI, and real-time data for healthcare, originally a gamified app for diabetic children. “(I’m drawn to a project) if there’s a human touch,” he said. “It’s relating data to human change in a positive way that made me not hesitate and go for it.”
While AI pitches flood in, past flops have left him with a degree of “marketing resistance.”
“I find that AI does add value if you have those (proper) steps into getting into AGI (artificial general intelligence) and the later steps that will come. It’s the proper development. But the hype about relating everything to AI, that part, I’m definitely against,” he said.
AI has dominated headlines for three years, fueling an economic boom, and sparking debate over job losses and ethical risks. Al-Saif acknowledges the technology’s “endless opportunities,” but doubts the hype will last and that AI will ultimately drive the world. “They will find something else; either it’s diverted from AI or from another field in technology to create that marketing sense.”
Asked what people should be more aware of, he urged greater public education on AI’s dual nature.
“It’s a knife that you can cook with, or it’s a knife that can stab someone. There’s a seriousness about AI, and sadly, the world does not do enough regarding the sense of awareness,” he said.
Without greater understanding, unchecked AI could create generations shaped entirely by whatever information they are fed, regardless of truth, he said, adding that the technology already enables bad behavior excused as “AI-generated” and blurs fact and fiction, making regulations essential.
Saudi Arabia is leading responsibly through its Data and AI Authority, he said. “I think they’re going very well within multiple sides: the regulatory part, the governance side, as well as when it comes to investing heavily with the infrastructure and AI companies.”
Through the authority, the Kingdom has launched an ambitious plan to position itself at the forefront of AI technology. Al-Saif has contributed directly and indirectly, including advising on public strategies such as the Riyadh Charter on AI Ethics in the Islamic World.
“It’s a very interesting place to be (at a) very interesting time. I’ve sat with the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman). He talked about AI, his vision, and how AI will create this next wave of businesses and next wave of economy.”
Asked whether our society is obsessed with technological progress, Al-Saif replies that “we are adopting (technologies) for what we need,” but adds that limits, such as Australia’s recent social media ban for youth, are needed. “But the thing is, they don’t ban stuff in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They try to create a system.”
At home, he supervises his children’s screen time or watches content together. “YouTube is still, I find, the safest platform (out) there because of its nature of long videos and vlogs. It is much more mature than any other platform when it comes to how to censor, how to control, how to do things.”
However, he agreed that younger generations, as tech natives, perceive tech interaction differently, specifically when it comes to privacy.
“Privacy is kind of a stretchy thing. I define privacy different than my kids when they grow up, and that made me think of privacy different. It’s not that we’re letting go of information. It’s the environment that we live in that creates that sense of privacy.”
Al-Saif believes privacy has already been reshaped — not as a value we hold dear, but as an illusion where true personal boundaries have been eroded. What remains is a mere reflection of our actions online, not tied to our names, but reduced to anonymous data points or numbers in the digital ether.
For Al-Saif, part of the answer lies in the power of disconnection, an approach that he has strongly advocated.
“I give myself an hour or two a day maximum (online) to know about certain other stuff. My advice for anybody who wants to live 12 hours of cool life is: Try to experience or to learn something unrelated to tech.”
Pointing to a beehive he keeps in the office, Al-Saif added: “There are other fields that I like to, let’s say, learn about. It’s a clear state of mind that you reach with it. And I just try to do as normal, natural things as possible; try to work with gadgets and appliances that don’t have batteries.”
