Meta acquires voice-AI startup PlayAI (PlayHT)
The product is later shut down
Partly confirmed
The takeaway
In July 2025 Meta confirmed it had acquired PlayAI (maker of the PlayHT text-to-speech and voice-cloning platform), bringing its whole team into Meta to work on AI Characters, Meta AI, wearables and audio content.
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 September 2026
Your AI and this story
- GPT-6 AstraIn its training data
- Claude Opus 5.5In its training data
- Gemini 4 HydrogenIn its training data
- Grok 4.7In its training data
It happened before the cutoffs of all four assistants, so it can be in their training data.
Key facts
- Meta confirmed the deal to Bloomberg (reported 2025-07-13); financial terms not disclosed
- Entire team (reported ~35 people) joined Meta, reporting to Johan Schalkwyk (ex-Sesame AI), per an internal memo
- Memo: PlayAI’s natural voices and voice-creation platform fit Meta’s AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables and audio content roadmap
- Shutdown details (API dark ~2025-07-26, platform end 2025-12-31, user data deleted) come only from secondary sources and migration guides; no primary PlayHT notice verified
What happened
PlayAI (PlayHT) was one of the best-known commercial TTS and voice-cloning platforms. Meta bought it for its team, part of a 2025 hiring push around Meta Superintelligence Labs. PlayHT’s customers were later pushed to migrate to other providers such as Inworld and ElevenLabs.
Why it matters
It is an example of the 2025-26 acquihire pattern: a big lab absorbs a startup’s team and the public product disappears. Developers who built on a small voice vendor lost their API. The exact shutdown timeline is unverified (confidence: medium).
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 2 press, 1 reaction
Press
- TechCrunch: Meta acquires voice startup Play AItechcrunch.com, press
- Bloomberg Law: Meta acquires voice AI startup PlayAInews.bloomberglaw.com, press
Reactions
- Inworld: migrate from PlayHT after shutdown (secondary)inworld.ai, discussion
Changes
- Filed