Like a Kindle is to book reading, the Portal is to video chatting — a tool elegantly, uniquely equipped for the task.
Whether it's the holiday season or you're working (and learning) from home, having an easy way to communicate while miles apart is important. Facebook's Portal makes that simpler than ever through its series of video-calling tools.
While Portal might seem a tad intimidating, you're likely already familiar with its technology and video-conferencing tools, including the standard call feature.
Here's a rundown of what you need to know to make a call from a Portal device.
Portal allows you to make and receive calls with both Facebook friends and WhatsApp contacts. Facebook Messenger contacts without Facebook accounts are, however, excluded.
On the receiving end, your call from Portal can reach other Portal devices. It also covers mobile devices using Facebook Messenger, including the mobile app, messenger.com, or facebook.com.
Portal calling also covers WhatsApp users with the app installed on their mobile phones for those who linked their account. If you can't reach a WhatsApp contact, it may be because they don't have WhatsApp open or in standby mode.
1. Tap the Portal's screen to exit picture frame mode. Or, tap the Home button at the top of the screen if you have an app open.
2. Open the Contacts app from the Portal's main screen.
3. Tap the name you'd like to call.
1. If you're receiving a call, tap the "Answer" icon to connect.
2. To end a call, first tap your Portal screen to reveal the call menu.
3. Next, hit "End."
If your Facebook account is linked, you can use voice commands to initiate a call with the words "Hey Portal.
" If you have both a Facebook and WhatsApp account connected to your device, Hey Portal commands will default to Messenger contacts. You can also change your preferences to make WhatsApp the Default Call Provider.
Here's a list you can use for hands-free calling.
To make a call: "Hey Portal, call (name of contact)."
To make a call to a WhatsApp contact: "Hey Portal, call (name of contact name) on WhatsApp."
To answer a call: "Hey Portal, answer."
To end a call: "Hey Portal, hang up."
1.
Tap the Portal's screen to exit picture frame mode and access apps. Or, if an app is open, tap the Home button at the top of the screen.
2. Open the Settings app.
3. Under "General," locate the category "Call Settings."
4. Now tap "Default Call Provider."
5. Enable "Use WhatsApp as the Default Calling Provider."
Emma Witman
Emma Witman is an Asheville, NC-based freelance journalist with a keen interest in writing about hardware, PC gaming, politics, and personal finance.
She is a former crime reporter for a daily newspaper, and has also written extensively about bartending for Insider. She may or may not judge your drink order when behind the bar. Follow her on Twitter at @emwity.
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Facebook's Portal smart screen was designed to make people feel like they are in the same room, even when they are far apart.
I have to say, it is pretty darn cool. The camera follows you as you walk around, and the sound quality is actually decent.
If you're just starting out with the Portal, here's how to make your first video call and some tips to managing calls easier.
Messenger friends on Portal
Alina Bradford/CNETFirst and foremost, it's important to understand you can only call people you're connected with on Facebook or Messenger.
Basically, you're making Messenger video calls on a bigger screen.
Want to call Aunt Jenny with your Portal? She's going to need a Facebook account.
To start a call, say, "Hey, Portal." It will answer you with a beeping sound. Then say, "Call [contact name]." More than likely, Portal will give you a choice of people to call. Just say the number that is displayed above the person's Facebook photo when the options come up on the screen.
If you don't want to talk to Portal to place a call, go to the home screen and tap the icon of the person you want to call. Then, when their information box pops up, tap Call.
From there, just like when you're making calls with your phone on Messenger, you can turn off the video or audio by pressing the mic or camera icons on the screen.
Now playing: Watch this: 5 apps for group video calls
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Just like when making regular Messenger calls, you can use augmented reality (AR) to add funny masks and filters to spice up your conversations.
While in a call, tap the gray Effects icon, then tap on the orange Effects icon. From there, you can choose your filter or mask by tapping on it. To turn effects off, tap on the Mask icon.
Need to mute your microphone during a call? Press the left button on top of the screen. When a red light shows up, that means the camera and the microphone are turned off.
Of course, the person you're talking to will see you pressing the button, so don't think that you're doing something on the down-low.
You can invite up to six people to be on a video call with you. To add more people, tap on the blue + icon while you're in a call or while you're making a call.
A friend list will pop up at the bottom of the screen. Scroll right to find the person you're looking for, then tap their icon.
How to transfer a call from your phone to Portal.
Alina Bradford/CNETIf you're in the middle of a call, but need to go to another room or head outside, you can transfer a Portal call to your phone, provided you have the Messenger app installed. Just open up Messenger on your phone and tap Transfer call with [contact] at the top of the screen.
Heading back to your Portal? You can also transfer a call from your phone to Portal. Tap the transfer icon found at the top right corner of your Messenger call screen.
Want calls to only go to your phone you while you're on the go? Switch on the Home and Away function.
To turn it on, go to the home screen and swipe left. Then, tap on Settings > Incoming Call Settings > Only When You're Home. Finally, go to your phone. A popup will ask you if you want to turn on Home and Away. Confirm and you're ready to go.
This feature will use your mobile phone's and your Portal's location to automatically determine if you're home or not. When you're away, calls are sent only to your phone.
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Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, and the messaging app Facebook Messenger is also very popular among users. Almost everyone who uses Facebook uses Messenger to communicate with friends.
However, most people are unaware of the great features that Facebook has added to the Messenger app. This review lists some of the best and most useful Facebook Messenger tips to help you get the most out of the app. nine0007
If you previously interacted with a business page on Facebook Messenger, and now you are receiving promotional messages that annoy you, then there are solutions for this case.
Open a conversation and in the upper right corner, tap the blue tick icon, then tap Mute Messages . Now, if a business tries to send you a message, they'll get a message that the person can't be contacted on Messenger. Also, after blocking a contact, if you open More options, you can hide, delete, or unblock the conversation. nine0007
Even though Facebook Messenger ads are not that annoying and appear as one of the conversations, if you want to hide these ads, there is an easy way to do so.
On the Chats tab, swipe on the ad. Click on the menu that appears and select Hide Ads.
Sometimes you want to find something that you or your friend has shared in a Facebook Messenger conversation. So, instead of scrolling through the whole conversation, you can use the Search in conversation option. nine0007
Open any conversation and tap your contact's profile picture. In the settings, click Search in Conversation and now in the search field, enter any keyword you want to search for. It will instantly return all results that match your keyword.
An interesting feature of Facebook Messenger is the Messenger Room. This is video chat where you can chat with people through link sharing and anyone with a shared link can join even if they don't have a Facebook or Messenger account. To create a Messenger room, go to People and click Active. Press 9 here0016 "Create a room" , and then click "Try".
Your device's camera will now be activated for the video call. However, at this point, you will see two options for adding members:
Once you've decided who can join your room, click "Share Link" to invite people to your video chat. nine0007
Dark Mode is the latest UI trend among apps and operating systems. Like many other apps, you can change the user interface of your Facebook Messenger to dark mode. Here is how you can activate it:
Click on your profile picture to go to your settings.
Click "Dark Mode" > "On" to activate the dark mode user interface. nine0007
Your browser has the Facebook Messenger mobile app, and your browser has a Messenger that you can access through Facebook.
But did you know that there is a third way to access Messenger, that is, through messenger.com. Though messenger.com won't have all the features of the Facebook Messenger app, but it can be a good option when you can't access Messenger in any other way0007
There are times when you want to chat secretly with one of your Facebook contacts. In such a case, Facebook Messenger allows you to start a secret conversation, which is encrypted. To start a secret conversation in the Messenger app:
Click the new message icon in the upper right corner. Tap "Secret" and then select the contact you want to have a secret conversation with. You can also change an existing conversation to a secret one by clicking on the person's name at the top and selecting Go to Secret Conversation. nine0007
What's interesting about secret conversations is that you can set a timer for each message by clicking on the timer icon in the text field and then selecting any time from 5 seconds to 1 day, after which the message will disappear as soon as it will be read by the recipient.
If you don't see this option in your Messenger app, you'll have to enable it in Settings. For this:
Click on the profile picture in the upper left corner. nine0007
Go to Secret Conversations and turn it on.
You can also delete secret conversations on the same page.
Facebook Messenger allows you to share your current location with any of your Facebook friends so they can easily contact you. To share your location:
Open any conversation and tap the plus sign (+) in the bottom left corner.
nine0002 Touch the Location icon (arrow icon on the right) and you will see a map with a pin displayed at the exact location.Click Start Sharing Live Location and your friend will know where to find you.
Just like sending voice messages, you can use Facebook Messenger to send video messages to your contacts. To do this, in Facebook Messenger in your browser:
Open a conversation and click on the camera icon in the lower left corner.
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Select Capture Video, record your video message and send it.
Similarly, to send a video message in the Facebook Messenger mobile app:
Open any conversation and tap the camera icon On the camera screen, press and hold the button in the center to create a video. As soon as you release this button, your video will start playing.
Now click Share to share it with your contact.
Going beyond a text conversation, Facebook Messenger allows you to make voice and video calls with your contacts. Just open any conversation and tap the voice or video call icon in the top right corner. You can also send voice messages to your contacts by pressing the microphone icon at the bottom of and then pressing the red record button.
Most messaging apps allow you to create and manage group conversations, and Facebook Messenger is no exception.
This feature is especially useful when you have to coordinate with several of your Facebook friends, and sometimes even non-friends. nine0007
You can create a group by doing the following:
Tap the new message icon in the top right corner and a list of suggested contacts will appear.
Select the ones you want to add to the group and click Done.
If the people you want to add to the group are not in the list of suggested contacts, you can find them in the search box above. You can even add people to your group who are not among your Facebook friends. nine0007
After creating a group, you can proceed to the group setting, from which you can change the color theme of the group, assign aliases to members, change the name of the group, and make other settings.
Facebook Messenger group conversations are very useful for communicating and coordinating with a group of friends at the same time. However, when group members start sharing messages that have nothing to do with you, then you don't see a choice but to turn off notifications.
To disable group notifications:
On the Chat tab, swipe left on a group conversation.
Click on the bell icon and choose how long you want this group chat to be disabled.
You will see a menu window with different time intervals - from 15 minutes to 24 hours and even 'until turn it back on' turn in which you can disable notifications.
If you don't want to just turn off notifications but not receive them at all, there is an option in the group settings to ignore messages. nine0007
After enabling this option, the group will be moved to the list of filtered messages and you will not receive any notifications. In addition, none of your group members will know that you have ignored group messages.
Note . The notification mute feature is not available on the Messenger mobile app.
You can use Facebook Messenger to create and share a story with your friends.
Like Instagram and Snapchat, you can share a photo or video that your friends can view and it lasts for 24 hours. To create history :
Go to the "History" button in the upper left corner and click on the plus (+).
It will go to your photo album where you can select photos or videos or access your camera to take it right away.
You can publish your story to all the people in your Facebook contacts or send it to selected people as a message. Just select the contacts you want to share your story with and click send. nine0007
Note . This option is only available in the Messenger mobile app.
If you want to see your friends' history on Facebook Messenger anonymously, then this feature is for you. In the Messenger app, click "People" at the bottom, and then click "Stories" in the top right corner of . Here you will see all the stories your friends have shared in the last 24 hours.
Even though the story will be shown as a thumbnail, it's still big enough for anyone to figure out what it's about. nine0007
However, one of the downsides of this trick is that you can't see all the stories your friends have shared, and only the most recent one will be visible to you.
Facebook Messenger allows you to change any of your contact names and give them a nickname of your choice. Here's how to do it:
Click on your contact's name and go to Edit Aliases.
Set a nickname for your friend. nine0007
Now click Save.
Setting aliases can also help you distinguish between your contacts if more than one of them has the same name.
Note . Only you and your friend will be able to see the nickname you have given them.
Facebook Messenger invites you to play games with any of your contacts that you are talking to.
Just open a conversation with one of your contacts and click the 9 icon0016 game console on the chat panel .
This will open a menu window showing many different games.
You can simply click "Play" to send an invitation and start playing the game with your contact right in the conversation.
Note . This option is only available in Messenger in your browser, not in the Messenger mobile app.
For those who have more than one account Facebook, Facebook Messenger allows you to add all additional accounts in the same application. To add more accounts to the Messenger app:
Click on your profile picture to go to your settings.
Click "Switch Account" and then click "Add" in the upper right corner. From here, you can add as many accounts to the Messenger app as you like.
You can also click "Create a New Account" at the bottom of the same page to create a new Facebook account directly from the Messenger app. nine0007
In Facebook Messenger, you only see messages from people who are already on your friends list.
However, sometimes you may receive messages from people who are not on your friends list. To check messages like this:
Click on your profile picture to go to your settings.
Click Request Messages and you will see all messages sent to you by non-friends on Facebook.
nine0011 19. Creating a surveyIt can be really difficult to get a group to make a decision or to ask their opinion on a certain issue. However, through Facebook Messenger, you can solve this problem by creating a poll with any number of questions. In the group conversation window, click the plus sign (+).
Click the histogram icon on the left.
In the window that appears, write the question you want to ask your group members and add options below it.
nine0002 After that, click the "Create Poll" button and your survey will be published to all members of this group. As you can see, there are really a lot of additional features in Facebook Messenger, and all of them make communication with your friends more convenient and faster.
What additional features do you use?
Translation from hongkiat.com.
Facebook is an Internet platform used by millions of people. Many of them have questions about working with accounts, settings, launching an advertising campaign, etc. There is an extensive help center to answer them. If the problem is more serious, then technical support is included in the matter. nine0007
Let's try to figure out how to contact Facebook technical support to get an answer to your question.
Content:
Facebook users who encounter problems often ask what number to call tech support.
There is only one answer to this: technical support cannot be contacted by phone.
Facebook is used by millions of people. And it will take a lot of effort to organize a call center that can cope with the requests of such an audience.
Facebook has a rather closed support policy. You can send an appeal only through special contact forms, which are in the "Help" section. There are no other contacts where you can contact Facebook technical support. Thousands of users ask questions on the official page of the service, but all this to no avail. nine0007
Attention : If you encounter a problem, do not waste time looking for a phone number or email address for technical support.
In 2008, Facebook introduced the Russian version of the site. Since 2010, there is technical support in Russian.
But there is a small obstacle - some requests have only an English version. For this reason, it is better to communicate in English. But technical support also has specialists who answer in Russian.
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We have already found out that technical support does not have a phone number and email address. Users can submit a ticket through the quick help form. This is a kind of Facebook technical support chat.
To write there, you need:
The system, as a rule, does not report on the stage at which the application is being considered and what decision has been made. nine0041
When filling out the form, be sure to attach screenshots showing what the problem is. This is a strong recommendation from the developers, which speeds up the decision-making process.
To systematize user requests, help service articles have links that can be followed to fill out the required contact form.
This table lists the most common problems faced by Facebook users.
| Problem | Link |
| Lockout . Facebook can block an account for a number of reasons. To restore access, the user must fill out a special form. If the cause of the violation is serious enough, then access will not be restored. However, if the blocking occurred by mistake, then you can try to defend your position. | Dispute blocking |
Account hacked . If you realize that your account has been hacked, you should immediately report it. In the appeal, describe in detail the reasons for your suspicions. nine0325 | Report hack |
| Problem logging into account . If you don't remember your username or password. | Login |
| Leave a review . Here you can leave your suggestions for improving the functionality of the system, as well as share ideas with developers. | Leave a review Share ideas |
| Complaint against impostors . If you suspect that the profile does not belong to a person, and someone is illegally using a well-known name or company name. nine0325 | Fake page |
| Problems with email address . Do you suspect that someone has taken over your Facebook email address? It is necessary to immediately notify the technical service. | Unauthorized use of mail |
Facebook page unavailable . If you see a message stating that a page is not available, then you need to report an error. | Page not available |
| Advertising question. Advertising issues are dealt with by a separate help desk. | Advertising |
| Copyright and trademark . If you find out that someone is illegally using your content or using your trademark for profit, you can report it. Facebook has a very negative attitude towards copyright infringement. | Copyright infringement |
| Shopping on Facebook . Here you can report problems with purchased games or applications. To return funds, you must fill out a special form. | Payment for purchases |
Owners of business accounts should know that technical support specialists quickly resolve problems related to advertising, especially if the reason is technical failures.
If the errors occurred due to the fault of the advertiser, then their correction is possible through an official appeal.
But the process can take a long time, so it's best to be patient. To speed up the solution of the problem, it is necessary to remind yourself in a polite manner repeatedly. nine0007
There are three ways to solve the problem with advertising.
Quite a simple option, but the answer to the appeal will take a long time.
You need to do the following:
This method is suitable for advertisers who already have some experience and are ready to defend their position.
Pretty simple:
This method is good because there is an opportunity to leave a complaint about the incorrect operation of the system.
To do this, do the following:
Important : to speed up the resolution of the problem, it is better to communicate in English. nine0007
Although recently it happens that the responses to the appeal come in Russian, this does not mean that the employee speaks it.
