Facebook Messenger App Updated With Voice Messages, Testing VoIP Calling in Canada

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by abz1981

Why only Canada? Seems to be Facebook is copying bbm voice.

I was expecting that response. If it was flagged as "US-only", which is very common for such services in beta, I betcha nobody in the US would think twice.

It's probably limited to Canada due to a smaller test market. Canada has just as mature, but smaller, market as the US, so it's a good testing ground. And maybe there's a Canadian company assisting Facebook with the implementation. (but not RIM, haha)

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Originally Posted by Northgrove

Wow, I can't even imagine how much processing power and bandwidth that would be required at the Facebook data centers to handle a billion voice calls, if this would roll out worldwide some day.

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It's possible it's intentional to reduce coverage while they're trialling the service and infrastructure. A scaling / stress test perhaps?

Skype uses a peer-to-peer system, and I expect Facebook will too. Only Apple chooses to channel everything through their own servers, but not sure if that has changed with iMessage and FaceTime.

[.macbookpro.]

The situation they are portraying on that photo is stupid. Surely a maps link or even... Typing(!) is easier. Or just use Siri

[turtlez]

Originally Posted by ///M5

Great. Facebook will now know how my voice sounds like. They will be able to sell this piece of information somehow.

correction: They will know what your voice sounds like if you choose to show them. If you really want privacy that bad anyway you may as well just stop speaking to anyone, never tell your neighbour your name or DOB, never do activities with others and wear a disguise when you do. Someone might just tell Google that you went horseback riding on the weekend and then your life would be all over!

[lunarworks]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

Makes sense. Our kids will hear that we used to just TYPE stuff in Facebook and look at us like we came from the old west or something.

As an adult, when kids today hear that we use a phone to make phone calls, they look at us like we're from the old west, and then go back to texting.

[haruhiko]

A mixture of features from Viber, Line and WeChat.

[ThisIsNotMe]

Insanely useless.

[aziatiklover]

Time for Apple to release the iVoip! Especially after facetime and imessage!

[profets]

Originally Posted by trekkie604

Unfortunately those nationwide plans bundle data. Only 2GB, I'm not giving up my 6GB

I guess you missed those $60 plans that included nationwide calling and 6GB?

Do a google search or check RFD for the $50 sask plan. Unlimited nationwide calling + 6GB data.

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Originally Posted by aziatiklover

Time for Apple to release the iVoip! Especially after facetime and imessage!

I always thought it would be awesome if during a Facetime call you could put the phone to your ear and it would turn into a voice only call through apple's service.

[Michael73]

Originally Posted by charlieegan3

Nice way to boost your data bill for sure.

When they bring this to the US, those of us who have hung on to our unlimited data plans will be sitting pretty

[Lil Chillbil]

That's pretty cool

[Madmic23]

Wow, so this is what it feels like to get something first!

I agree, they probably choose Canada because it's a smaller market. But also, we have in my opinion, our cell networks have taken a major step up in the past few years. All of our major providers have the iPhone and LTE coverage in the major markets, so using a VOIP app should be pretty good.

Now if only the major networks would actually start to compete with each other instead of offering the same deals at inflated prices.

[Bawstun]

Originally Posted by charlieegan3

Nice way to boost your data bill for sure.

If you have any AT&T iPhone or any iPhone that takes a sim-card for that matter, switch to StraightTalk. It's basically cheaper AT&T tower service, with actual English-speaking customer support too.

$45 unlimited texts, minutes, and data. Best decision I ever made lol.

Edited to add: And the iPhone does not need to be unlocked. As long as it is an AT&T iPhone they all work with StraightTalk's unlimited $45 a month service. Also, they make regular-sized sims for 3GS users, and mini-sims for the newer iPhones.

[mchoffa]

Originally Posted by GekkePrutser

But I never really understood why they have so many different apps, Facebook itself, messenger, photos and pages. You can do everything inside the main app as well and it's much handier because you don't have to switch all the time.

They roll out new features in the standalone apps, get some testing done, then when it's smooth roll it out into the main app. That's what the messages and camera app have both done.

[aristotle]

There are several reasons why they are probably testing in Canada first.
1. The market is smaller so they can test on a smaller scale.
2. Canadians are more polite.
3. Canadians have less of a sense of entitlement.
4. Canadians still have more consumer confidence to "spend" money as the "downturn" did not affect Canada as badly as the US.
5. The cellular infrastructure in Canada is more robust than a lot of markets in the US.

When I was down in Vegas in the first half of December, I noticed that there were a lot of fellow Canadians there at the time. Canadians are travelling and spending more than Americans are right now and Facebook is ultimately an advertising platform much like the "free" google services. I'm surprise that Apple and Google have not thought of trials for services here in Canada as well.

[apollo1444]

it works in mexico out of the box

[shurcooL]

Nice trend! We're getting closer to being able to ditch our voice+text+data plans ($56 a month) for data-only plans ($25-35 a month).

I hope Apple introduces something similar to FaceTime, except for voice only and one that you can call/be called by non-Apple users.

I'm already using an iPad mini with Cellular as my phone replacement, but I have to rely on 3rd party VOIP apps.

[ritmomundo]

Uhh, why give directions via voice over Facebook chat? Thats ridiculous. Why not just give the address (or even just the name) of the restaurant and let people use Siri or GPS or google maps for directions.

[ECUpirate44]

Originally Posted by Bawstun

If you have any AT&T iPhone or any iPhone that takes a sim-card for that matter, switch to StraightTalk. It's basically cheaper AT&T tower service, with actual English-speaking customer support too.

$45 unlimited texts, minutes, and data. Best decision I ever made lol.

Edited to add: And the iPhone does not need to be unlocked. As long as it is an AT&T iPhone they all work with StraightTalk's unlimited $45 a month service. Also, they make regular-sized sims for 3GS users, and mini-sims for the newer iPhones.

Does it work with 4G networks?

[Ballis]

Will they eventually integrate it into iOS?

[mazz0]

Originally Posted by Northgrove

Wow, I can't even imagine how much processing power and bandwidth that would be required at the Facebook data centers to handle a billion voice calls, if this would roll out worldwide some day.

Why would it take much processing power in the DC? It'd only need to route the calls, no more power required than for text messages; the real work would be done on device, I'd have thought.

Originally Posted by baryon

Will this be compatible with desktop Facebook? They're not going to reach 1 billion users if they only provide their feature for mobile users.

I bet a LOT of Facebook users, particularly the heavy ones who'll be the first to adopt new features, have smartphones.

Originally Posted by aziatiklover

Time for Apple to release the iVoip! Especially after facetime and imessage!

Aye, would be handy if calls to other iPhones automatically went over wifi, although personally I prefer my communications solutions not to be platform specific. But the sooner the networks become entirely a dumb pipe the better! Do one thing and do it well; there's no reason the company providing the network connection should also provide the services that run on it.

[locust76]

Hehe, the quote

The only drawback is that voice calls (messages are available to all) will be available to Canadian users of the iOS Messenger app at launch.

makes it kind of seem like "We're sorry, but Canadians are using this thing too, so apologies to anyone who has the misfortune of talking with a Canadian."

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by aristotle

There are several reasons why they are probably testing in Canada first.
1. The market is smaller so they can test on a smaller scale.
2. Canadians are more polite.
3. Canadians have less of a sense of entitlement.
4. Canadians still have more consumer confidence to "spend" money as the "downturn" did not affect Canada as badly as the US.
5. The cellular infrastructure in Canada is more robust than a lot of markets in the US.

1. makes sense.

2. 3..... hahaha, you know what they say about the grass uh ? Seriously, Canadians are no different from Americans in those regards.

4. makes no sense, this is a free service.

5. Is also quite laughable (there are quite a few dead spots in the Montreal downtown area and signal strength isn't always good when travelling major roads around the suburbs. Our cellular infrastructure is no better than AT&T's or Verizon's.

The reason for testing this in Canada is simple. You said it first, the market is smaller, but also, our carriers don't tend to give out big data plans. The biggest we can get as far as I know is a 6GB plan (what I have) and usually, carriers use that as a last ditch effort to keep you subscribe. Usually data plans, for around 10$-20$/month are between 500 MB and 1 GB.

Try doing VoIP and all your other stuff using that.

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Originally Posted by locust76

makes it kind of seem like "We're sorry, but Canadians are using this thing too, so apologies to anyone who has the misfortune of talking with a Canadian."

Well, good thing no one will have the misfortune of talking to Canadians then heh ? Since it's only Canadians that are going to be talking to each other.

[Bawstun]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

Does it work with 4G networks?

Sorry, I'm not sure on this. You would have to visit StraightTalk's website and see their 4G coverage maps (if they've got one). I have an iPhone 3GS which isn't 4G compatible so I can't speak from personal experience with 4G.

[XboxMySocks]

Originally Posted by shurcooL

Nice trend! We're getting closer to being able to ditch our voice+text+data plans ($56 a month) for data-only plans ($25-35 a month).

Until they start charging $56 a month for the same amount of data because they can't scalp for voicetextdata

[louis.b]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

I'm sure, like any ad placement agency out there, Facebook doesn't sell your information to advertisers at all. That's just daft, that information is a gold egg laying goose. You don't sell it, you get it to lay eggs.

What Facebook (and Google and Apple and every other ad placement service) does is collect information through analytics and then sell ad placement based on that information rather than selling the information directly. Doing business that way is much more sustainable.

For once I agree w you