Facebook offers free calling for all iPhone users in the US

Jan 17, 2013

We have heard the Facebook wants to come out with a Facebook Phone service. Well, it has started with one of the initial steps. Now you can make free calls within US through the iPhones.

In early January, Facebook began testing free calling over Wi-Fi and cellular data for allMessenger for iPhone users in Canada, and said that a US launch could be coming soon. Apparently, the test went well — a new free calling button has appeared in the app. 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.

So, you can call your FB users for free over Wi-Fi or using your phone’s data connection. Verge reports that the call quality is fairly good:

After a few tests, the call quality sounds very good, and is certainly on par with competitors Viber, Vonage, and Skype — which have had the feature for some time, but all have much smaller user bases.

Interestingly, Facebook also has integration with Skype and there one can even use Video for calls, which is still missing on the Facebook’s messenger offering.

Source: The Verge