July 6, 2011
Facebook
announces video calling leveraging Skype! They also announced a new chat design that includes a sidebar that lists the people you message most. The sidebar adjusts with the size of your browser window, and it automatically appears when the window is wide enough. From the sidebar you just click your friend and then select video calling. They also announced multi-person chat, allowing you to add your friends to the chat.
Here's a screenshot from my Facebook:
And here's how you start a video call:
Updated thoughts:How about group video calling like Google+ Hangout, which I believe supports 8 simultaneous video users? This is great news, but Google+ Hangout wins on group video calling. Though most video calls are 1-to-1, so can't knock it too much.
Just tried this on iPhone Safari. It doesn't work. So this is desktop PC only. Also tried this on Linux and it didn't work. I haven't tried a Mac. Anyone?
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