Geez, Facebook, you’re like everybody’s absent-minded uncle. You throw this huge event for Graph Search, which nobody will ever use, and somehow forget to mention that, oh yeah, you can make phone calls over Facebook now? Would you care to guess, Facebook, which announcement might just be more popular?
Facebook has been testing VoIP for a while, but apparently the tests are over, at least on iPhone:
Facebook has confirmed to The Verge that the feature began rolling out to US users today, and requires no update through the App Store. To make a call to another Messenger for iPhone user, all you need to do is open a conversation with that person, tap the “i” button in the top-right corner, and tap Free Call.
We’ve tested it out and… well… it works. Really, really well, actually. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to sub in for your phone in a pinch.
We’re a bit baffled that Facebook seems to think we care more about a Yelp replacement than something that would basically make telephony as we know it a completely different beast. Facebook is clearly planning to integrate VoIP into everything it distributes, which is great news for consumers and terrible news for anybody who makes money letting people communicate with their voices.
Facebook is, as we don’t need to tell you, ubiquitous. This promises to make it even more so. If you’re low on minutes, just find a Wi-Fi signal, which is pretty easy to do these days, boot Facebook, and call. We can see this service taking off, not least because you really don’t get more convenient.
Anything else you forgot to mention? Free candy? A dollar to every user? A Dislike button? C’mon, you can tell us!