Just yesterday, Facebook announced its new social search engine, Graph Search. But as of yet, you're still probably on the waiting list to actually try out its features. Today, however, iPhone users have an all-new bit of functionality built into the Facebook Messenger iOS app. Calling your Facebook pals for free is now as simple as the press of a button--mostly.
Facebook rolled out its free friend-to-friend phone calls for iPhone in Canada earlier this month, but according to The Verge, the service is now available to all Facebook Messenger app users in the U.S. starting today. In fact, you don't even need to download an app update to get the functionality.
Making a phone call to someone on your friends list is super easy. Simply open a chat window with the buddy you wish to call, and tap the small "i" icon in the top right corner. A new "Free Call" button will appear, and you'll try to contact the friend (with their smiling mug showing up on the screen's background).
After testing the service, the call quality is pretty much what you would expect from similar free VOIP applications on the iPhone; a bit faint and tinny. But whereas Skype--for example--requires a separate friends list, the sheer massive scope of Facebook networks makes this a potentially interesting feature.
We can see this as being handy on occasions when your cellular service is acting wonky, but you still have access to Wi-Fi. Free calls are also possible over cellular, though.
There is one caveat to what is otherwise a cool, new way to use Facebook Messenger: the friend on the other end of the line will need the Facebook Messenger app. Unfortunately, the service doesn't work through the standard Facebook app at this time. When I initially tried to call some friends, a pop-up notification sad they couldn't take calls "right now." I had to actually enlist the help of a colleague to download the app and make a call.
The reason for Facebook's insistence of a separate Messenger app still continues to allude me, but for the time being, convenient free calls are a nice addition.
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