Facebook Messenger launches free video calling
Facebook is rolling out an update for its free Messenger app that will enable free video calling. The social network has allowed voice calling for quite some time in its mobile app, but video calling has long been largely unavailable for mobile users, until now.
This puts Facebook Messenger even more squarely in competition with the likes of Google Hangouts, Skype, and others. Google especially should feel worried, as Messenger has a much higher regular user base than Hangouts.
According to Facebook, the ability to video call will only be mobile to mobile, not mobile to desktop, but it will be interoperable between iOS and Android.
The feature will be available initially in just 18 countries: the U.S., Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the UK, and Uruguay.
[Facebook]