Facebook Messenger Now Supports Voice Calling for U.S. Accounts

[Xenomorph]

Originally Posted by CGagnon

Why not just use FaceTime?

You mean that thing that AT&T BLOCKS for millions of their loyal customers?

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by Slim02

When you call people on Skype you do not need a number. The only time you need a phone number is when you call outside of Skype.. But Skype to Skype you need no number to make calls.. Ok so you say some thing then send it and wait for replay just like you do for text.. Calling you both can talk at the same time (just like when you use a telephone in your house or cellar phone..) without any pules in the middle like texting...




Description
AIM is evolving. We've redesigned our app from the ground up to give you the best way to keep in touch with people and groups. Start or join a group chat, share images, voice messages and your location, and continue conversations with your desktop and web clients seamlessly.

Features:
- Chat with a friend or group of friends with the new “Start a Chat” button
- Customize your groups with features like add/kick members, edit group icon and mute
- Favorite your friends and group chats for instant access
- Share photos, voice messages and your location without leaving the conversation
- Copy and paste messages
- Tap on location previews in your conversation to get directions
- Tap on icons to quickly view user details or group chat settings
- See your social notifications for activity on your AIM, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts
- Turn on “Do Not Disturb” to turn off sounds and push notifications
- Set quiet hours to mute sounds and push notifications for when you don’t want to be disturbed
- Change your incoming message sound in sound settings
- Connect to Facebook Chat and Google Talk in your chat networks settings


Message - a verbal, written, or recorded communication sent to or left for a recipient who cannot be contacted directly:

Calling - phone, telephone, get someone on the phone, give someone a call, give someone a ring, give someone a buzz.

You do realize you can FaceTime with just audio and no video right?

[Four oF NINE]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

So you're telling me... that audio chatting is not the same thing as "calling" someone? Can you point out the difference? This app doesn't call phone numbers, in case that's what you think it does.

But I would really like an instant massager.

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Most people I know use iOS devices, two of them use FaceTime, and most people I know also use FaceBook. FaceBook is pretty stupid, but it's more useful than you might think: it works great for groups of various sorts.

I've never been able to get past the problems inherent in giving much information of a personal or private nature to corporate aggregators of personal information whose business model requires that the data they acquire be repackaged and sold to persons unknown. A bit paranoid? maybe, but I don't miss it.

Originally Posted by WilliamLondon

1B FB members and no one you know? How is that possible?

Ok, perhaps I exaggerate a bit But I might as well not, since I don't have an account there.

[Slim02]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

You do realize you can FaceTime with just audio and no video right?

You do realize that FACETime was meant for VIDEO CHAT that is why it has FACE in its name?...

FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to talk, smile, and laugh with anyone on an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or another Mac from your Mac.2 So you can catch up, hang out, and stay in touch with a click. Just find who you want to see in Contacts and start a FaceTime call. And when someone wants to reach you, the call rings through on every Mac you own, even if FaceTime isn’t running. So you never have to worry about making yourself available. If you don’t want to receive calls, just turn FaceTime off.

http://www.apple.com/ios/facetime/


FaceTime, Easiest way to call FACE-TO-FACE.....

Hang with friends in one city. Visit family in another. Make that important meeting. While you’re catching the game at the ballpark. With a tap, you can make video calls over Wi-Fi from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac to someone else’s. You can even make FaceTime calls over cellular networks on iPhone or iPad.* And be there in person, even when you’re not. (I do not think you can do that with audio)

Also you can not use FACETIME outside of Apple's Devices..

[charlesdayton]

Originally Posted by MrDc2

Skype is going down...

Same thing people said when FB launched their video chat...

[MrDc2]

Originally Posted by charlesdayton

Same thing people said when FB launched their video chat...

That is true..

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by Slim02

You do realize that FACETime was meant for VIDEO CHAT that is why it has FACE in its name?...

FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to talk, smile, and laugh with anyone on an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or another Mac from your Mac.2 So you can catch up, hang out, and stay in touch with a click. Just find who you want to see in Contacts and start a FaceTime call. And when someone wants to reach you, the call rings through on every Mac you own, even if FaceTime isn’t running. So you never have to worry about making yourself available. If you don’t want to receive calls, just turn FaceTime off.

http://www.apple.com/ios/facetime/


FaceTime, Easiest way to call FACE-TO-AG7FACE.....

Hang with friends in one city. Visit family in another. Make that important meeting. While you’re catching the game at the ballpark. With a tap, you can make video calls over Wi-Fi from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac to someone else’s. You can even make FaceTime calls over cellular networks on iPhone or iPad.* And be there in person, even when you’re not. (I do not think you can do that with audio)

Also you can not use FACETIME outside of Apple's Devices..

I get the marketing of it but it's so easy to just send audio over it most people don't realize the option exists. Tap the home button while FaceTime is active.

The Facebook calling is currently only over iOS as well. The only advantage it has is for people who still can't FaceTime call over 3G/LTE because of moronic carrier restrictions.

[ifij775]

Originally Posted by MrDc2

Skype is going down...

I tried it out and Skype has nothing to worry about. The audio quality stunk

[sirozha]

Originally Posted by Szarky

Plus the fact that Skype holds a connection better than FaceTime does is pretty emberassing for Apple. My sister told me about it when she tried iPhone 5 to iPhone 5 with her friend, I thought it must have been a rare problem but then I tried with my iPhone 4S and the connection kept cutting out with an error message. Tried Skype right after, no error messages or black screens, the video might have been a bit choppy but it kept the connection at least.

For me, FaceTime has always been much better thank Skype. With Skype, I can't even get the proper sync between voice and video. However, there are some disadvantages to FaceTime. First, there's no presence information available, so when you place a FaceTime call and you hear a ring, there's really no telling if the other end is ringing or if that device is completely off. Additionally, many routers do not open proper ports for a FaceTime call. It's not an issue if you have an Airport router, but many other brands do not work properly with FaceTime out of the box. The ALG (Application Layer Gateway) in a router does wonders for any SIP-based call, but many consumer-grade routers do not have this feature.

[Slim02]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

I get the marketing of it but it's so easy to just send audio over it most people don't realize the option exists. Tap the home button while FaceTime is active.

The Facebook calling is currently only over iOS as well. The only advantage it has is for people who still can't call over 3G/LTE because of moronic carrier restrictions.

The point is whats the point in using FaceTime as audio only.. There are better ways in using other apps that also run on other formats other then Apple's for audio..

[miknos]

Originally Posted by nutmac

Skype is still holding on to the fact that it has perhaps the best voice quality of all free voice chat apps.

That's true but the app quality has been going down since Skype was acquired by Microsoft.

[QuarterSwede]

Originally Posted by Slim02

The point is whats the point in using FaceTime as audio only.. There are better ways in using other apps that also run on other formats other then Apple's for audio..

Because it's built in and well integrated. Plus it sounds fantastic (better than Skype by a noticeable amount).

Look, I don't necessarily disagree with you but you were being enough of an ******* by bolding way too many words and repeating yourself over multiple posts that I figured someone should give you some counterpoints. Simply put, you were annoying.

[Blakjack]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

OMG SO AMAZING! Nope, AIM has had this since I started using it. And it works on everything. Why people use Skype, which leeches your bandwidth and isn't universally compatible, really amazes me; it's probably just the advertising.

I'd gladly use FaceBook for messaging if it had every feature AIM had and worked in iChat.

What's AIM?!! HA!!

[Freyqq]

Originally Posted by QuarterSwede

You do realize you can FaceTime with just audio and no video right?

i think it's called a phone call lol

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by Freyqq

i think it's called a phone call lol

No. FaceTime works on devices that aren't phones and do not have phone numbers.

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Originally Posted by Blakjack

What's AIM?!! HA!!

It's the best major messaging system there is. Actually, Google is better in some ways and worse in only a couple of ways, but it sucks since it works only minimally with iChat.

[mantan]

Originally Posted by Judas1

They make a ridiculous amount of money, meaning they overcharge for services that doesn't cost them that much. And if there was true competition, they'd get off their asses and be able to provide better service for much less. Nice job sticking up for the little *cough* guys.

Their profit margin is FAR less than Apple's....do you have the same amount of passion for Apple making 30%-45% profit per iPhone?

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by Slim02

Message - a verbal, written, or recorded communication sent to or left for a recipient who cannot be contacted directly:

Calling - phone, telephone, get someone on the phone, give someone a call, give someone a ring, give someone a buzz. SOme one you can be contacted directly to...

I don't think you've ever used AIM. You can call people by sending a voice chat request to their AIM account (also works with .Mac and MobileMe accounts). If they accept, you can talk to them real-time. It works in the same way Skype does except with better quality and no BS. The BS is the fact that calls from other people get routed through your computer.

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Originally Posted by Four oF NINE

I've never been able to get past the problems inherent in giving much information of a personal or private nature to corporate aggregators of personal information whose business model requires that the data they acquire be repackaged and sold to persons unknown. A bit paranoid? maybe, but I don't miss it.

Just give them fake data. I have a FaceBook account with a fake name that's kinda close to my real one, but nobody would be able to find it and know that it's me. FaceBook has none of my real info except for things I have said on it. There really is nothing to be paranoid about considering that no website necessarily knows more about you than your ISP does.

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Originally Posted by MrDc2

Skype is going down...

I hope. That piece of garbage sucks, and I'm sick of AIM being the best system. Some of my close friends and a lot of family members use it, but it sucks that the most popular messaging systems (Skype and FB) are also some of the worst. So it would be great if FB made a good system that worked with iChat.

Yeah it would be great if Skype improved, but let's face it: Skype is Microsoft. It's not going to happen EVER.

[Awakener]

Originally Posted by Morshu9001

But I would really like an instant massager

I think we would all like an instant massager.

[lk400]

Originally Posted by WilliamLondon

1B FB members and no one you know? How is that possible?

That includes company accounts, duplicate accounts, fake accounts etc. Excluding those, its clearly less than 10% of the worlds population. Also, that is centred in certain countries, and has much lower representation in other countries. Its entirely possible, depending on where the poster is from. I only know a few people who use facebook - and I am not one of them.

[Morshu9001]

Originally Posted by lk400

That includes company accounts, duplicate accounts, fake accounts etc. Excluding those, its clearly less than 10% of the worlds population. Also, that is centred in certain countries, and has much lower representation in other countries. Its entirely possible, depending on where the poster is from. I only know a few people who use facebook - and I am not one of them.

I have about 8 accounts, and I use only 1 of them... rarely. And I like all of my own comments, which annoys other people a LOT for some reason. Too bad if you're too much of a princess to accept seeing that extra like on a comment.

The only way to close the @#$%ing account is to change the name to something random, de-friend everyone, then make a new account... or contact FaceBook to request that they delete it. REQUEST. It's my account! What a bunch of pests!

[bobenhaus]

Originally Posted by Kissaragi

Better than my landline at home in fact.

Android devices has had voip for years. Its called Google+ or Google Chat that is built into all devices.

[MSM Hobbes]

Originally Posted by Szarky

Plus the fact that Skype holds a connection better than FaceTime does is pretty emberassing for Apple. My sister told me about it when she tried iPhone 5 to iPhone 5 with her friend, I thought it must have been a rare problem but then I tried with my iPhone 4S and the connection kept cutting out with an error message. Tried Skype right after, no error messages or black screens, the video might have been a bit choppy but it kept the connection at least.

My usage is quite different… I've traveled in many parts of the US, and on trips to Canada and China, have had great success w/ FaceTime. LOL, was amazed, for just one example, that was able to "call" home back to the states to talk with video from rural China, on a moving bus (equipped w/ wifi!).

[ECUpirate44]

Keeps saying I don't have permission to chat with this person

[DisMyMac]

Originally Posted by Radio

Okay that won't happen

I can't wait for apple to record your keystrokes

Please let me borrow your tin foil hat

It won't happen because our leaders heeded warnings from aliens about unchecked technology, so big companies tend to behave nice.

[RevTEG]

I do a ton of international travel and really love the Viber app. I use it all the time. FB messenger adding free calling is really cool. Having options is never bad.