Facebook has now introduced video calling to Messenger, the company’s highly popular mobile communications app. Users will now be able to initiate a face to face video call from within the app, by tapping on a video icon in the right hand corner of the screen.
The feature is enabled for calls between mobile phones, even if one is an iOS device and the other Android, and Facebook claims the service will offer high quality connectivity even on low bandwidth cellular networks. Stan Chudnovsky, Head of Product for Messenger said, “We want to make sure someone on a high–end iPhone here can make a call to someone with an Android in India.”
Over recent weeks Facebook has been expanding Messenger’s suite of capabilities, incorporating new features such as dialing calls, money transfer and hosting business customer support interactions.
What distinguishes this new feature from competing services — such as Skype, Apple’s FaceTime, and Google Hangout — is that users can switch from texting to video call at any point during their messsenger conversation
In a statement Facebook said:
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. It’s fast, reliable and high quality.
The new feature is launching on iOS and Android devices and will only be available for now in Belgium, Britain, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the US and Uruguay.
