Facebook Messenger takes on Skype with free VOIP video calls
In a move that pretty much everyone expected, Facebook Inc has announced that its standalone Messenger app will now support free video chat.
Facebook originally turned a lot of people off of Messenger when it forced users to install a separate app if they wanted to continue chatting with their friends through Facebook, but the social network has continued adding new features to make it up to them, including the ability transfer money through Messenger. Now, the app’s new video chat features will allow it to compete with similar apps like Skype or FaceTime.
“Video calling will expand Messenger’s real-time communication features, enabling the more than 600 million people who use Messenger every month to reach others wherever they are, from anywhere,” Head of Product for Messenger Stan Chudnovsky and Engineering Manager Param Reddy wrote in an announcement. “It’s fast, reliable and high quality. Video calling in Messenger is available for calls made from a mobile phone to another mobile phone, even if one person is on iOS and the other person is on an Android device.”
The new video chat capabilities are currently limited to Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the U.K., the U.S. and Uruguay. Facebook stated that it plans on rolling out video chat capabilities to other regions at a later date.
Using video chat through Messenger is simple. You simply navigate to the friend you want to call and tap the camera icon at the top of the screen. The call uses your phone’s front camera by default, but you can also switch it to the back camera if you want to show off your surroundings or the sandwich you are eating.
At the moment, Messenger only allows one on one video calls, but Facebook may add conference calling later on.
“Group video calling is definitely a use case that a lot of our people might be interested in at some point,” Chudnovsky told Techcrunch.
He also addressed the possibility of the new features heralding a possible competition for livestreaming apps like Meerkat or Persicope.
“We’re building infrastructure that will allow us to do anything we want with video,” he explained. “We’re not thinking about what our second, third, fourth, and fifth steps will. We’re going to look at the data and decide what we need to do. There’s are 20 different ways we can take it”
Image credit: Facebook
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