Facebook has made the Messenger app a more useful platform for its 900 million users. The social media giant has announced that it is rolling out a group calling feature on Android and iOS – users can connect with their friends through a VoIP-based group call and add up to 50 friends for free.
David Marcus, Chief of Messenger, in a Facebook post, announced the new feature will be rolled out for worldwide users in iOS and Android apps in the next 24 hours.
“From any group conversations, just tap on the phone icon to initiate a group call. You can then manage individual participants on the next screen,” he explained in the post.
Way back in 2013, Facebook started offering VoIP calls for Messenger users, and the feature fully rolled out in April 2014. Facebook is experimenting with several new features – At the annual developer conference F8 in San Francisco this year, Facebook revealed they are working on bots that include shopping, booking airline tickets, and even reading the news.
Facebook Messenger has received multiple updates in the last couple of months – the company has enabled support for multiple accounts, integrated with Dropbox, and created a new look and feel with a material design make-over.
Group video calling is one of the most popular media for users to connect with their friends and families. Skype and Google Hangouts have been dominating. Facebook hasn’t announced group video calling and when it will be available, although we are pretty sure the company will bring this feature in the near future.