With Portal TV, you can make and receive calls to and from your Facebook friends and WhatsApp contacts. You can't call Messenger connections that don't have Facebook accounts.

Currently, Portal TV calls can only be received on Portal devices, on the Messenger app on mobile phones or tablets, on messenger.com or facebook.com, or on WhatsApp on mobile phones. Calling on messenger.com or facebook.com is only available using the browsers Chrome or Opera. In order to call a WhatsApp contact from your Portal TV, the contact must have WhatsApp open or in standby mode on their mobile phone.

Making a call

1. From Home on your Portal TV, open the Contacts app. You can filter your contacts by Favorites, Recents, and Messenger. You can also Search. If you’ve connected your WhatsApp account to your Portal TV, you can also filter by WhatsApp.
2. Select a contact.
3. Make a selection to start your call.

You can also use voice commands to make a call by saying: “Hey Portal, call [contact name].” For example, “Hey Portal, call John Doe.”

Currently, “Hey Portal” is only available in English (US/Canada), and will be disabled if you select any language other than English (US/Canada) as your preferred language on your Portal. You can still make calls on your Portal using the touch screen, and we're hard at work to add “Hey Portal” functionality in additional languages. See portal.facebook.com/usage for more information.

Answering a call

If you have HDMI-CEC enabled on your TV and on Portal TV, when you receive an incoming call, Portal TV will not turn on your TV or switch the input until you’ve answered the call. If you don’t have HDMI-CEC enabled or if your TV doesn’t support HDMI-CEC, when you’re receiving an incoming call you should first turn on your TV and switch to the correct input before answering a call.

To answer a call you can do things like:

• Select Answer to join the call.
• Press on the Portal TV remote.
• Say “Hey Portal, answer.”
• Press on your Portal TV remote and say “Hey Portal, answer.”

When answering a call using voice commands, your camera will be off by default. Learn how to turn your camera on.

Ending a call

To end a call:

1. Press Select to expose the call menu.
2. Select X to end the call.

Call features

During a call you can do things like:

• Move around and talk hands-free. Portal's Smart Camera keeps you in-frame and Smart Sound enhances the voice of whoever is speaking while minimizing unwanted background noise.
• Turn your microphone or camera on or off.
• Add more friends to the call.
• Use AR Effects and Story Time.