Facebook introduces free VoIP calls, limited to iPhone users within the U.S.

To no surprise, we didn't witness the announcement of the mythical "Facebook Phone" during the social network's press conference held on Tuesday. We didn't get a dedicated Facebook Messenger app for the iPad either. What was introduced instead was the Graph Search feature powered by Bing technology. However, that's not all Facebook had been working on all along.

After running some testing in Canada, Facebook has launched free VoIP calling for its iOS users within the United States. Basically, you can now call another Facebook user from your iPhone via the Messenger application, which does not need to be updated in order to support the feature. Just hit that "i" button in the corner and the "Free Call" option should be right there. The free Facebook voice calls are confirmed to be working over both Wi-Fi and cellular data connections, and the sound quality should be as good as it is with other VoIP clients. 

Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it would have been greater if Android was also invited to the party, but we assume that free VoIP calls through Messenger will reach those Facebook users as well. When exactly that might happen, however, is not yet known. What Facebook did not elaborate on either is when (or whether) VoIP calls will be enabled for Facebook users outside the U.S.

source: The Verge