Hot on the heels of Google+'s group video chatting feature, Mark Zuckerberg has recently announced that Facebook will be teaming up with Skype to launch a new video chat feature on the popular social networking site. The feature will allow Facebook users to chat with friends on camera like a video chat you'd have on Skype only on Facebook all your friends and family are already there and they no longer have to create a separate Skype account. While I have 242 'friends' on Facebook, I only have about 25 contacts on Skype of which half are never logged in.
The new feature will display on the site in two ways. There will be a small camera icon on the profile page of each 'friend' between the message and poke buttons on the top right hand corner. In addition, the small icon will also appear at the bottom of the chat list that will now take up the whole right hand side of the page. After logging into Facebook this morning, I didn't see either of the icons and will be watching throughout the day. You may have to install a plug-in or download a program when first accessing the video chat but it is only suppose to take a few seconds. Also, if you attempt to call someone and they don't answer you can leave a video message for them to pick up when they're back online.
Facebook is constantly evolving and modifying so it's no surprise that they launched a camera feature for their users. It's the way the world is communicating and text is just not enough anymore. Zuckerberg has indicated that they will be looking into developing a group chat option. Personally, I'm happy to stick to Skype where I chat to close family and friends without the distraction of a Facebook page. Before I jump to any conclusions, I'll test it out and see...
Image sources: facebook.com, dreambank.org