Facebook has officially announced Video Calling in Messenger app on Monday.
“Today, we’re introducing video calling in Messenger. Now you can have face-to-face conversations with your friends and the people you care about, via Messenger” said in their blog post.
Facebook first introduced desktop video calling in partnership with Skype in 2011, but eventually built its own video call infrastructure.
Facebook’s this new feature will be a serious competition to other existing video calling services such as FaceTime, Skype, and Google Hangouts.
We can quickly start a video call from any conversation with just one tap. If we are messaging with someone and realize that words just aren’t enough, we can simply choose the video icon in the top right corner of the screen and start a video call right from within an existing Messenger conversation.
Messenger already offers people the ability to make voice calls to friends and loved ones around the world. 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.
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.
This is the latest feature released for Messenger, following the ability to send money to friends, the launch of Messenger Platform and the introduction of Businesses on Messenger (coming soon).
Video calling in Messenger launched for people on iOS and Android in Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the UK, the US and Uruguay. Facebook will be roll out this feature to other regions and locales over the coming months.
