Today, Facebook releases a new tool to their ever increasing arsenal, adding to their video power. This tool is free VOIP video calling.
This is what Facebook Messenger is launching over WiFi and cellular connections. This new service is available on all Apple and Android mobile devices. It’s available in 18 countries, including the US, Canada and Mexico. It’s expected to expand to other nations soon. With this feature, two people, even with older, cheaper smartphone devices, can talk to each other anywhere in the world. Facebook has been partners with Skype since 2011, but now continues to craft it’s own video empire. The potential audience is already there. There are 1.44 billion Facebook accounts globally. Forty-one percent of those accounts, 600 million, have access to Facebook Messenger, thus having access to this VOIP feature. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg predicts a day when VOIP will make phone calls look obsolete (like the smartphone and iPod has made the Walkman and Discman obsolete). He wants to be at the forefront of this change. All one has to do is tap the camera icon on Messenger’s top right corner and wait for your recipient to respond. It starts selfie style, but can be manipulated to other angles.
This time, the first 18 nations getting this app will be literally global, from United Kingdom to Oman to Nigeria to Laos to Uruguay. This may not sound like much, but how often do new smartphones and apps go to the wealthiest nations, while others often have to wait months? This is brilliant on Facebook’s part. Now we’ll see if people can keep in touch between New York and Lagos, or Canada and Uruguay with this app. If free VOIP can work in these circumstances, I‘m convinced it can work literally all over the world. But do you really see a day where VOIP will replace telephone calls?