Mobile Devices

January 17, 2013

Facebook Unveils Free Voice Calling through Messenger for iPhone Users

It appears as if social media giant Facebook has been rolling out feature after feature lately. First it decided it would test out charging its users one dollar to make sure their private messages reached the proper inbox of someone that wasn’t within their network. Its latest feature will allow users to make a free phone call through the new messenger app.

According to The Verge, Facebook first tested the free voice calling in Canada earlier this month, and has now unveiled it to iPhone users in the United States. The new feature allows users to make a phone call through the messenger app without using up any of their data plan or accruing carrier charges.

How it works is users go into the app, select the friend they would like to have a conversation with, tap on the “I” icon that’s in the upper right hand corner and then select the “Free Call Option” that will be revealed and let the conversation commence. The only slight drawback is users must have a Wi-Fi connection and can only call others who have the messenger app installed on their iPhone.

The phone call through the app will not resemble a normal phone call; instead the user on the receiving end will get a push notification with the caller’s name. As of now, the feature is only capable of making the calls to users who are logged in on a mobile device and not the actual website.

This latest feature comes off of the heels of Facebook’s new Facebook Poke app launched late last year. The new app seems to rival Snap Chat, where users can “poke” a friend by sending them a photo or video that will automatically disappear within 10 seconds of it being sent. Once the allotted time is up, the photo or video will vanish forever.

Unfortunately for Android and Blackberry users, the calling feature is not available with no word on when or if it will be rolled out.




Edited by Brooke Neuman


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