Voice calls and video calls are coming back to the Facebook main app properly, after having been shifted to Messenger back in 2014.
Facebook had both voice and video calling as features all the way back since 2011. This was around the time that social media was becoming widely accepted as an incredibly mainstream method of individuals contacting each other. Therefore, it made sense that Facebook would try to actively capitalize on its community's need to communicate with each other. On top of that, applications such as Skype were displaying the viability of video calling, bringing those into the mainstream as well. Therefore, the social network decided to add both features to its interface, adding yet another major contribution to the era of online communication.
All of this went on until 2014. By this point, Facebook had decided that its Messenger interface, the very thing that harbored both audio and video calls, was popular enough to necessitate separate applications. Therefore, along came Messenger and Messenger Lite. More importantly, Messenger took all modes of communication on Facebook with it. Wanted to call someone? Download Messenger. Care to video chat? Download Messenger. Wish to do something as simple as messaging a peer? Well, this author need not explain what needs to be done (download Messenger). The purpose of this, other than opening up a new market for the Facebook company, was to provide a neat, dedicated space for online communication via the social network.
So, why bring it back now? A good reason could be competition. Simply stated, the landscape is not what it was back in 2011. With platforms such as TikTok taking center stage, and Facebook being stereotyped as the "baby boomer app", perhaps the social network is looking to navigate its team out of such irrelevancy. Not to mention that it is much more convenient to simply use Facebook for conversation, as opposed to an entire separate app. The company is also looking to incorporate Messenger's inbox back into Facebook after all this experiment.
So, when can these changes be expected? Well, it's difficult to say. This is a rather major revamp of Facebook's interface, and one that will require extensive testing. Luckily, the voice and video calls are under beta testing across certain unspecified regions (probably North America). However, this author believes that we might still be quite a few months away from seeing convenience returned to the social network's famous app.
Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images
Read next: Facebook attempts to increase awareness by enabling Covid-19 vaccine information in comments
Facebook had both voice and video calling as features all the way back since 2011. This was around the time that social media was becoming widely accepted as an incredibly mainstream method of individuals contacting each other. Therefore, it made sense that Facebook would try to actively capitalize on its community's need to communicate with each other. On top of that, applications such as Skype were displaying the viability of video calling, bringing those into the mainstream as well. Therefore, the social network decided to add both features to its interface, adding yet another major contribution to the era of online communication.
All of this went on until 2014. By this point, Facebook had decided that its Messenger interface, the very thing that harbored both audio and video calls, was popular enough to necessitate separate applications. Therefore, along came Messenger and Messenger Lite. More importantly, Messenger took all modes of communication on Facebook with it. Wanted to call someone? Download Messenger. Care to video chat? Download Messenger. Wish to do something as simple as messaging a peer? Well, this author need not explain what needs to be done (download Messenger). The purpose of this, other than opening up a new market for the Facebook company, was to provide a neat, dedicated space for online communication via the social network.
So, why bring it back now? A good reason could be competition. Simply stated, the landscape is not what it was back in 2011. With platforms such as TikTok taking center stage, and Facebook being stereotyped as the "baby boomer app", perhaps the social network is looking to navigate its team out of such irrelevancy. Not to mention that it is much more convenient to simply use Facebook for conversation, as opposed to an entire separate app. The company is also looking to incorporate Messenger's inbox back into Facebook after all this experiment.
So, when can these changes be expected? Well, it's difficult to say. This is a rather major revamp of Facebook's interface, and one that will require extensive testing. Luckily, the voice and video calls are under beta testing across certain unspecified regions (probably North America). However, this author believes that we might still be quite a few months away from seeing convenience returned to the social network's famous app.
Photo: NurPhoto via Getty Images
Read next: Facebook attempts to increase awareness by enabling Covid-19 vaccine information in comments
