Facebook is secretly researching modular phones

A new report reveals that Building 8, Facebook's secretive research division headed by the former director of the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is considering developing modular smartphones (phones that can be easily disassembled and upgraded with separate parts).

According to Business Insider, Facebook has filed a patent for a “modular electronic device” that would eliminate the “expensive and wasteful” conventional electronic components that users have to buy and then throw away when they become obsolete after a few years. The document describes both a phone and a smart speaker as potential product categories.

It’s unclear how far Facebook has come in developing such a hardware project, but there are signs that Building 8 is increasingly interested in modular smartphones. Dugan, for example, has extensive experience with modular smartphones: she was in charge of Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects, including Project Ara, a modular phone that made it all the way to a hardware test in Puerto Rico before Google abandoned the entire project last fall.

Earlier this year, Ms. Dugan joined Facebook and took over as head of Building 8. She and her colleagues are now pursuing a number of other ambitious hardware ideas, including a brain-computer interface that would allow people to type with their minds and even hear through their skin.

Business Insider added that many former members of Google's Project Ara are now working for Building 8. Facebook itself confirmed that the technology described in the patent application was mainly developed by former members of the modular electronics startup Nascent Objects. Facebook acquired Nascent Objects last September.

According to VNN