Mark Zuckerberg took the stage today at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California to announce that the most recognized VoIP service in the world (Skype) and the world’s most notable social network are now fully integrated with each other bringing the best of both worlds, video chat within the browser.
Video chat is nothing new, the problem was that a lot of people didn’t use video as a common form of communication or many others used different services, which made difficult to have someone who to video chat with, and don’t forget that for a lot of folks this was not easy to configure. Now Facebook wants to changes all that with the introduction of video chat powered by Skype — which if you recall now it is owned by Microsoft — built-in right into chat, and with over 750 million users is more than likely that you are now going to have someone to use this service with.
Things you want to know:
- Video chat from Facebook is currently supported by the following web browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari. No Linux is not supported at this time with any of these web bowers, make sure that you use Windows or Mac.
- Calls that you make will be not be recorded or saved, just the date of the calls you make or receive will appear with your ongoing conversation history in Facebook Messages.
- You don’t necessarily need a webcam to use video chat, you will be able to see and hear your friends, but they cannot see you.
- For a complete list of how to get started with Video calling visit this page.
To call your friends, just simply click the Call button at the top-right corner of the chat window or from the top of your friend’s profile. Other thing that is really cool is that if nobody answers your call, you can leave a voice message!
“Bring your conversations to life
Sometimes an emoticon just isn’t enough. With face-to-face video calling, now you can watch your friends smile, wink and LOL.”
It isn’t just video chat what Facebook is unveiling today, also Mark introduced a few other stuff (Sidebar and Group Chat).
Chat has been redesigned, there is a sidebar with the list of people you connect more frequently. This sidebar can easily adjust to your browser window, and if the browser window is wide enough it will automatically be displayed the sidebar.
Sidebar with your most frequently friends:
Multi-person chat is another feature that got introduced, where users will be able to crate group chat in a snap. “Now when your friends can’t figure out what movie to see, you can just add them to a chat and decide together.”
To add more friends to the group chat, you can just simple click the Add Friends button, in the top-right corner of the chat window.
Group chat:
Facebook is making video chat available in over 70 different languages. Facebook will be rolling out video chat in the next few weeks, but you don’t have to wait that long, you can get it right now by visiting this page and clicking the Get Started button.
Did you try Facebook video chat? What do you think?
Also check How to set up and uninstall Facebook video chat from your computer
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Source The Facebook Blog
Mauro Huculak is a Windows expert and the Editor-in-Chief who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He's also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 12 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows, software, and related technologies, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ & Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, and LinkedIn.