Facebook had launched Messenger as a standalone app in 2011. The voice and video calls are now part of the Messenger app. Bloomberg reports that Facebook is planning to bring back these features to its main app.
The voice and video call features have been added to many of Facebook’s products other than Messenger, including Portal video cameras and Oculus virtual reality headsets. Facebook hasn’t confirmed adding any other features of Messenger into its main app. But the director of product management of Messenger had told Bloomberg that we could expect a bit more in the coming days.
Facebook has confirmed that it is testing the voice and video call features in countries, including the US. The Verge reported that the company did not give any details about who all will be receiving these features. It has also not released any statement on what will happen to Messenger which is now the company’s full-fledged messaging platform.
With voice and video calls added to Facebook, people will find it easier not to switch between multiple apps. This could mean that Messenger will have nothing more to do. Many people will like the idea of having one less app to switch between while doing other things on their devices. Of course, there are risks of being criticized. Unifying Messenger into Facebook will attract the same kind of criticism that integrating Messenger and Instagram direct messages drew.
This is not, however, Facebook’s first attempt at bringing back Messenger features into its main app. In 2019, it added a chatbox for text messages. The notification “from Facebook” was added to the text messages sent from the main app to Oculus, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
