Manage Assistants

“Hey Portal” is a wake word that let you use your Portal hands-free to make requests or ask questions using your voice. If available to you, say “Hey Portal” when you want Portal to start a video call, check the weather or respond to other commands.

Portal voice commands activate when Portal detects the wake word "Hey Portal." Unless you turn Portal’s microphone off, Portal listens for a wake word. If Portal detects a wake word, a visual indicator appears on the bottom of the screen, and Portal will start to record and transcribe your voice interaction. This recording and transcription is sent to Facebook servers in real-time to respond to your request.

WhatsApp Accounts

If your Portal is connected only to your WhatsApp account or your voice interaction occurs during a WhatsApp call, Portal will still respond to the wake word, but your voice interactions are not stored or accessible. Voice interactions occurring during a WhatsApp call are not sent to Facebook servers.

“Hey Portal” availability varies. Learn more about “Hey Portal” availability.

“Hey Portal" and Alexa are built into your Portal for hands-free control. In order to enable Alexa on your Portal, one of the accounts linked to your device must sign in to their Amazon account.

You can use "Hey Portal" to control things like:

• Calling.
• Weather.
• Time.
• Brightness control.
• Video control.
• Using camera Effects.
• Social features.

You can use Alexa to control things like:

• Playing music through music services connected to your Amazon account.
• Settings alarms or timers.
• Shopping and creating to-do lists.
• Some Alexa-supported features, like controlling smart-home devices.

For example:

• Set an alarm by saying, "Alexa, set an alarm.”
• Start a video call by saying, "Hey Portal, call [contact name]" or "Hey Portal, call [Relationship Name]."
• Hear the local weather, birthdays, events and news by saying, “Hey Portal, good morning.”

Say “Hey Portal” get help with calling, music, timers, alarms, weather and more. See below for examples of commands you can use.

• “Hey Portal, call [contact name].”
• “Hey Portal, hang up.”
• “Hey Portal, end call.”
• “Hey Portal, answer.”
• “Hey Portal, cancel.”

• “Hey Portal, stop.”
• “Hey Portal, play [artist name].”
• “Hey Portal, play [music genre].”
• “Hey Portal, play [song title].”
• “Hey Portal, pause.”
• "Hey Portal, who sang [song title]?"
• "Hey Portal, what was [artist name's] debut album called?"
• "Hey Portal, who are the members of [group name]?"
• "Hey Portal, when was [artist name] born?"
• "Hey Portal, who is the lead singer of [group name]?"

To use Portal music commands, you must be logged into a streaming service and your command must be compatible with your subscription.

• “Hey Portal, wake up.”
• “Hey Portal, turn up the volume.”
• “Hey Portal, open web browser.”

These commands will put your Portal in “sleep” mode.

• “Hey Portal, go to sleep.”
• “Hey Portal, turn off.”
• “Hey Portal, off.”
• “Hey Portal, sleep.”
• “Hey Portal, shut down.”

• “Hey Portal, set a timer for [date and time].”
• “Hey Portal, stop timer.”
• “Hey Portal, cancel timer.”
• “Hey Portal, how much time is left on the timer?”

• “Hey Portal, set an alarm for [date and time].”
• “Hey Portal, stop.”
• “Hey Portal, wake me up at [time and date].”
• “Hey Portal, cancel alarm.”
• “Hey Portal, turn off alarm.”
• “Hey Portal, stop the alarm.”

• “Hey Portal, what’s the weather?” Note that Portal will set your city automatically. If the location isn’t right, learn how to change the weather location on Portal.
• “Hey Portal, is it raining?”
• “Hey Portal, what’s the weather like in [location]?”
• “Hey Portal, will it be sunny tomorrow?”
• “Hey Portal, what will the weather be like at [time]?”

• "Hey Portal, show photos."
• "Hey Portal, show photos from [Location]."
• "Hey Portal, show photos with [Person]."
• "Hey Portal, show photos with [Content]."
• "Hey Portal, show photos from [Time]."

Learn more about using voice interactions with Portal.

“Hey Portal” uses a voice to respond to questions or commands you say to your Portal. Now, you can change the sound of your assistant voice to one that sounds best to you. This can be changed at any time in your Portal settings.

To change the voice of your assistant:

“Hey Portal” works independently from other voice services such as Amazon Alexa. If you activate Alexa on Portal and use the “Alexa” wake word, Amazon will process that request independently. Use of Alexa or any other third party voice services on Portal is subject to the terms and policies of those other services, not the terms and policies of Facebook and its products. Facebook doesn't collect voice interactions processed by a third party voice service.