After adding WhatsApp, Oculus VR and Onavo to its portfolio in 2014, Facebook has netted a deal with voice recognition firm Wit.ai, the social media company's first acquistion for 2015.
The million dollar question is: will Facebook users soon be able to post status updates and send messages via Wit.ai?
Facebook acquired the 18-month-old startup on Jan. 5 for an undisclosed amount. It is not known what plans the social networking site has in store for the voice recognition service that can convert spoken word and written text to data. The same can be added to mobile apps.
With the acquisition of the startup that can turn text into "actionable data," Facebook seems poised to throw the gauntlet to the likes of Siri and Google Now.
"Facebook has the resources and talent to help us take the next step," said Wit.ai in a blog post. "Facebook's mission is to connect everyone and build amazing experiences for the over 1.3 billion people on the platform -- technology that understands natural language is a big part of that, and we think we can help."
Voice recognition technology is seen as an indispensable tool as more and more people employ this technology when going online through their smartphones. Keying in quite a bit of text can often be cumbersome as the touchscreen keyboards are quite tiny. In such a scenario, a speech-to-text service is of great help.
While it is probable that Facebook users may be able to use Wit.ai to post status updates, the technology may also aid the social networking site in targeting ads as it can track what people are posting via speech. The acquisition would likely help Facebook cultivate voice features for its cross-platform Messenger app, which could in turn aid the growth of its Language Technology Group.
"Wit.ai has built an incredible yet simple natural language processing API that has helped developers turn speech and text into actionable data," revealed a Facebook spokesperson. "We're excited to have them onboard."
Wit.ai will move to the offices of Facebook in Menlo Park, according to a spokesperson. Some of Wit.ai's employees are anticipated to be hired by Facebook, which include the three co-founders.
