Facebook is officially testing voice and video calls on its main app with the aim of bringing both of them back. The features mentioned are a part of Messenger which is Facebook’s instant messaging app. Since 2011, Messenger has been a stand alone app and in 2014 it was officially removed from Facebook and became a separate app.
With this move Facebook is thinking of Messenger as a service app rather than a stand alone app which it already is. Reports suggest that we may see a limited Messenger version added to the main Facebook app. Currently users have to download Messenger separately to use the video and voice calling features but with this additional setup things will become more convenient.
Facebook confirmed to The Verge that it is testing voice and video calls in “several countries, including the US.” The company did not share how many users will see the features or what this means for the standalone Messenger app in the future other than “for a full-featured messaging, audio and video call experience, people should continue using Messenger.”
Connor Hayes. Facebook director of Product Management at Messenger tells Bloomberg. “You’re going to start to see quite a bit more of this over time.“
We are really not sure what the course of this trial is. But if unified then users will have one less app so switch to thereby making things a little easier. This trial also resembles Facebook’s earlier move of unifying Instagram Direct Messages (DMs) and the Messenger, which received quite some criticism.
Facebook has also teamed up with the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) to bring the Paralympics to the fans. To know more about that in our How Facebook Is Connecting Fans to Paralympics article. Click here.
To know more about Facebook and Instagram features. Click Here.
