Facebook recently has announced the new feature that has been rumored for quite long: video calling. This new service is the response from the giant of social network to the launch of Google+. Now besides to Poke or Message a friend while you are on his/her profile, you will see a new Call button that of course will allow you to place a video call. The Good thing about Skype service integration into Facebook’s site, is that the users will not be required neither to create a new Skype account nor to link their existent one to the profile. It allows Facebook users to place a video call with Skype services with almost zero configuration, and that’s a good thing.
Video Calling will be integrated with the Facebook chat service. The right side of the screen in the Facebook site will be the position for the new chat sidebar. The most amazing thing that I could find to this “awesome” show off is that when you call one of your contacts and he/she does not respond, you can leave a Video Message. That’s all. The rest of the service is just like the one we can find on Gtalk, which is already included on Gmail and of course Google+.
As mentioned before, this was something that we could expect since the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft. This response from Facebook comes right after the launch of Google+, which already includes a video chat feature: Hangouts.
As far as I know (or at least could find) Facebook Video Calling does not support group chats. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that group calls are not necessary due to that the majority of video calls placed in the world are 1-1. Really?
In conclusion, Facebook Video Calling is not something brand new or awesome. It is a response to catch up Google+. This move not only shows that they are aware of the danger that G+ represents, but also shows that they are falling behind in social technology innovation.
And you, what do you think about this new Facebook Feature? something revolutionary or just taken out of the old vault ?
