Meta has officially acquired Play AI, a voice technology startup known for its work in creating highly realistic AI-generated speech. The acquisition was first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by a Meta spokesperson.
Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
According to an internal memo cited by Bloomberg, the entire Play AI team will join Meta in the coming week. The company said Play AI’s technology aligns closely with Meta’s roadmap across multiple platforms, including Meta AI, AI Characters, wearables, and audio-based content tools. This could also be used to make a powerful Siri alternative.
Play AI is recognized for developing PlayDialog, a proprietary voice model capable of delivering emotionally rich, low-latency speech with multilingual support. The model is designed to simulate context-aware dialogue, making it ideal for immersive conversational interfaces in both consumer and enterprise products.
In recent months, Meta has intensified its AI hiring, drawing top talent from OpenAI and Apple, and entered a partnership with Scale AI. Notably, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang is now leading a newly formed division at Meta focused on superintelligence.
With the addition of Play AI, Meta aims to improve the expressiveness and naturalness of voice features in its digital assistants, particularly across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and its wearable devices such as the Ray-Ban smart glasses.
The Play AI team will report to Johan Schalkwyk, a recent Meta hire and former Google executive specializing in voice and speech recognition. This integration is expected to fast-track Meta’s development of next-generation voice interfaces, from AI avatars to creator tools for audio content.