Facebook on Wednesday announced their newest feature Video Calling. The program, which incorporates Skype technology and allows users to chat one-on-one is available for immediate use by all of Facebook’s user base.
The program according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a long time to develop because the company didn’t want to interfere with other site functions. Under the new program users can visit Facebook.com/VideoCalling and download a special PC or MAC based program that installs in a matter of minutes and once installed users can click on a small video icon on their friends profiles and chat windows to request a chat, users then see an “accept” or “deny” window where they can engage with friends.
Facebook at this time is not attempting to compete with Google +’s 10 person video group chat feature, however Mark Zuckerberg has “not ruled out” a group video chat function for the future.
On the company’s blog today Philip Su told users:
“Video chat has been around for years now, but it’s still not an everyday activity for most people,” while he went on to add, “Sometimes it’s too difficult to set up, or the friends you want to talk to are on different services. So a few months ago, we started working with Skype to bring video calling to Facebook.”
The program is 100% free to use.