Facebook Launches Group Chat and Video Calling Powered by Skype

July 6th, 2011 Kevin Martinez

During the event at Facebook headquarters in Paolo Alto, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new video calling feature powered by Skype, as well as the group chat feature and improvements to the chat functionality design. Zuckerberg announced new features on Wednesday and also said that Facebook has reached a new milestone, 750 million users across the globe.

Facebook partnered with Skype to bring video calling to the popular social networking site. The feature is “built right into chat” and to start using it, users will first have to install a plug-in to setup video calling on their browsers. Facebook users will be able to video call their friends with a single click from their friends’ profile or from their Facebook chat window. Users will also be able to leave a video message in case a friend misses their call.

Those Facebook users who have a Skype account can run Facebook video calling and Skype at the same time, as the two apps are not related to each other. User’s webcam, however, cannot be shared between two apps.

Facebook is making video calling available in 70 languages and the new feature will be available to all users over the next few weeks.

Facebook also announced multi-person chat which allows users to create group chats without having to create a group first. “To include more friends in your conversation, simply select Add Friends to Chat,” Facebook’s Philip Su wrote in a blog post. “And just like your other chats, the history of your conversation is available in messages,” he added.

Facebook has also redesigned chat by introducing new sidebar that “adjusts with the size of your browser window and it automatically appears when the window is wide enough.”  The new sidebar lists the people users contact most frequently.

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Posted in Financial Today Tags: Group Chat, Skype, Video Calling
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