VoIP calling quietly rolls out to Facebook Messenger users in the UK
Add another country to the list of those with access to VoIP calling via Facebook’s Messenger app. The company has not been advertising the feature, which so far is available for users in the US, Canada, and now the UK. A new update being pushed to users enabled the functionality and follows shortly after Facebook added VoIP calling to their iOS offering.
The option appears on active Messenger users’ profile page as “Free Call.” Tapping the field will initiate a free Messenger-to-Messenger call via WiFi or cellular data network (it’s not necessarily “free’ in all senses). In order to establish a connection, both users must be running the latest version of the Messenger app with VoIP calling enabled.
So far Facebook’s attempts to push Messenger as a total replacement for traditional SMS have been slow to catch on, especially with a number of other free messaging services with a strong foothold in the mobile arena. They’ll likely face an equally tough time cracking the VoIP market (especially if they never advertise it) despite the ubiquity of their platform.
[via TheNextWeb]