Facebook Plans Smartwatch With Focus on Messaging, Health

Facebook is building a smartwatch it hopes to start selling next year, according to people with direct knowledge of the device. The watch will let wearers send messages using Facebook’s services and also offer health and fitness features, according to four of those people.

Facebook’s planned foray into smartwatches would inch the company further toward CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s aim of controlling the next computing platforms after smartphones. In recent years, the social network has expanded into selling consumer hardware, introducing Oculus virtual reality headsets and its Portal lineup of video-calling devices for the home. But it has not yet entered the smartwatch market popularized by companies like Apple, Huawei and Fitbit, which is now owned by Google.