Facebook Bringing Voice and Video Calling Back to Main App After Moving Them to Messenger

Facebook is re-adding voice and video calling features to its main Facebook app after moving the features to Messenger back in 2014, reports Bloomberg.

Facebook Feature
Users in some countries including the United States are now able to make voice or video calls directly from the Facebook app. As of now, Facebook is testing the feature, which is meant to cut down on the number of times that Facebook users need to swap over to the Messenger app.

Messenger and Facebook used to be a single app, but in 2014, Facebook split them into separate apps and removed Messenger functionality from Facebook. Customers were forced to download the Messenger app to send private messages to other Facebook users or to make phone calls using the Facebook platform.

Facebook has also been testing adding a limited version of the Messenger inbox to the main Facebook app, further expanding what can be done without having to switch to Messenger.

Connor Hayes, director of product management at Messenger said that Facebook is beginning to consider Messenger as a service rather than a standalone app. "You're going to start to see quite a bit more of this over time," Hayes told Bloomberg. He said that Messenger is the "connective tissue" for people to communicate regardless of which service they're using. Facebook believes that a unified messaging infrastructure will keep its users engaged in the Facebook ecosystem rather than using alternative services like iMessage.

Facebook combined messaging between Instagram and Messenger last year, a feature that the company also plans to bring to WhatsApp. Deep integrations could make it harder for the Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp apps to be split should Facebook lose the antitrust lawsuit it is facing. The United States FTC has accused Facebook of a social networking monopoly and has called for the company to divest Instagram and WhatsApp to bolster competition.

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Top Rated Comments

randyhudson Avatar
46 months ago
In other words, Facebook wants you to give it 24-7 microphone access because the microphone access you gave their messenger app isn’t recording as much as it could.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vagos Avatar
46 months ago
Messenger is the only reason I'm not deleting my facebook account. If they phase out messenger I'm done with facebook once and for all.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
46 months ago
Hopefully, They don't record the the voices and the video. It is added with security and the features.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DanteHicks79 Avatar
46 months ago
They really can't make up their minds, can they?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeoStructural Avatar
46 months ago
They should have never split them in the first place.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Thebrochure Avatar
46 months ago
I honestly can not believe that people still use Facebook. With everything we've found out about them mining data, spying on you, selling your private information... it's truly remarkable that they keep on going like this.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)