Facebook is pushing back its smart speaker following privacy concerns

This is probably for the best.

Between May 1 and 2 this year, Facebook will host its annual F8 Developer Conference in San Jose, California. This year's event was supposed to be where Facebook would introduce the world to its first smart speaker, but these plans have apparently been scrapped.

According to sources that spoke with Bloomberg, Facebook will not announce its speaker this May as a result of the recent controversy that's popped up regarding Facebook's misuse of its users' data.

Facebook is apparently still on track to launch its speaker later in the Fall, but F8 was supposed to act as an early preview so developers and consumers alike could get an early glimpse of what's to come. It's disappointing that we'll have to wait a while longer before getting to see what Facebook's Echo and Google Home competitor will look like, but this move is more than understandable considering everything that's going on right now.

There's still a lot that's unknown about Facebook's smart speaker, but it's expected to offer features we've seen in competing products – such as easy access to a virtual assistant and a video-chat feature.

Are you still interested in a Facebook speaker following everything that's happened over the last few days?

Facebook kept logs of calls and messages on Android phones, and followed the rules to do it