Facebook messenger adds video calls, taking on Facetime, Skype and others

App allows anyone with the app and an internet connection to video chat

(Facebook)

Facebook has added video calling to its Messenger app, letting anyone with an internet connection and the app talk to each other through their phone.

Conversations can be started by clicking the video icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen. They must be started from an existing Messenger conversation.

Facebook said that it integrated the two tools because “It’s not polite to call someone out of the blue anymore”.

“Best to text them first. That’s why Facebook thinks video calling will live naturally inside Messenger.”

But it may be that the two have also been integrated in part to bring attention to Facebook’s plans for Messenger as Platform, an initiative the site launched last month. Through that, the site intends to make Facebook into a central hub for a range of third-party apps as well as letting companies use it to talk to customers, opening up the app from being simply a text chat one.

The new video calling features work across operating systems, so that iOS and Android users can chat with each other.

It has been rolled out to users in the UK as well as most of Europe and the US. Facebook said that the feature will be rolled out to other regions “over the coming months”.