Digital assistants have been around for a while now. Cortana, Siri, Alexa, are all there to meet their masters’ needs and provide them with useful information on whatever they want to know. It might be a simple coincidence that all the popular digital assistants are female characters, but then again, it could also have a perfectly good explanation. Facebook’s digital assistant could actually be the first one to break the trend and be a guy for a change. Until recently, all we knew about the assistant is that its name starts with M. Now, it seems that it is a male name, Marvin to be more specific. At this point, it is only a potential name, even so, it might stick and bring along the first male digital assistant. Google’s Assistant is more gender neutral, even so, it has a female voice set as default, so it doesn’t count as the first male digital assistant.
Marvin might not be the first name we would have thought about, however, it actually makes sense. It is a strong name, easy to pick up by the device it serves. It is not the most common name, however, it is quite popular, so it’s easy to remember and people can use it without needing to squeeze their brains every time they need the assistant. Also, it is a short name, which is really important to keep things simple. Some even think that Facebook chose this name for its digital assistant as a tribute to Marvin, the android in 2005 movie, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
One of the devices we will see Marvin integrated into will be Facebook’s smart speakers. The gadgets should have been announced this week, however, we still haven’t seen them. Rumor has it that the company will opt for the international launch first and bring it to the US only a little later. There will be two speakers, one of which will also feature a touchscreen and a camera. Naturally, they will automatically connect to Facebook Messenger. With the help of Marvin, chatting on Facebook Messenger should become even easier than it is right now.
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn
RSS