Facebook is testing adding voice and video calls to the main Facebook app, Bloomberg reports. The features are currently part of the standalone Messenger app, which Facebook originally developed from its big blue main app in 2011 and was officially phased out in 2014.
Voice and video calls are two of several Messenger features that Facebook has introduced into its other products, such as Portal video cameras and Oculus virtual reality headsets. The company hasn’t shared whether it plans to bring other parts of Messenger back into the fold, but Messenger’s director of product management did. Bloomberg that “you’re going to start seeing a lot more of this over time.”
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Facebook confirmed for The edge which is testing voice and video calls in “various countries, including the US” The company did not share how many users will see the features or what this means for the standalone Messenger app in the future, other than “for a full-featured video, audio and messaging experience, people should continue to use Messenger.”
Adding voice and video calls to the Facebook app makes as much sense as spinning off Messenger in the first place. Yes, it means there is one less app to change while doing other things on your computer or phone, but it also means that you will have to interact with (or at least view) Facebook along the way, something that I’m not sure everyone is. are interested in doing it.
There is also the risk that the integration of Messenger on Facebook will generate the same kind of criticism as the unification of direct messages from Messenger and Instagram. It seems like it makes a giant company like Facebook even harder to crack, which may be the point.
This isn’t the first suggestion that Facebook was considering bringing Messenger back to Facebook. In 2019, the company tested text chats back to the main app with a dedicated inbox and splashed “from Facebook” onto Oculus, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
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