When it came out, I was living in a different country than the rest of our extended family. We got three Portals for Christmas: one for us, one for each of the grandparents. All of us still use the devices regularly to call other as well as other people.
The UI is grandma- and kid-friendly with big clear buttons and nothing extra. The camera is very good for family video calls because it’s a fisheye that’s digitally cropped and corrected to provide automatic pan and zoom. The kids can run to the other end of the room, and the Portal will automatically follow them and crop the image neatly.
The Facebook brand probably did it no favors, and they really dropped the ball during Covid by not having Zoom available until very late in the game.
RIP sweet dedicated family videophone. With how much money Meta lost on this, I don’t suppose anyone will try again anytime soon.