Facebook’s app could soon see video and voice calls added

Years after removing message messaging features from the main Facebook application, the social media giant seems to consider their return because it tests the addition of voice and video calls to Facebook, according to Bloomberg.

Previous Facebook users can only make voice and video calls to other users through a separate Facebook messenger application when on a cellphone, but testing will see multiple accounts can make this call using the main application.

Director of Facebook Product Management, Connor Hayes, told Bloomberg this test wants to streamline communication by removing the need to switch between the main Facebook application and Facebook messenger.

It is not clear whether Facebook will bring the main Messenger feature – Text Chat – back to the main application, but some other Facebook property integration has started to occur.

Instagram and WhatsApp are both owned by Facebook, and it has allowed users to connect their joint messenger and Instagram chat since last year. There is also talk about connecting whatsapp and messenger chats as well.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Hayes said: “You will begin to see a little more than this from time to time”.

Analysis: Do two applications better than one?

Facebook First deletes the Messaging feature from its mobile application in 2014, which means users need to download messengers if they want to continue sending messages directly to other Facebook users from cellphones.

While there are arguments to be made to streamline mess messaging back to the main Facebook application, there are also good cases to separate them. Facebook is certainly not the first – moving from social media sites where users share text or status posts to one that now primarily view users share links and view ads.

Some users may still want to bypass the flow of news, advertisements, and posts together using Messenger to communicate with friends and family, while others have removed the main Facebook application from their cellphones at all.

Data collected by Serupaweb shows that while WhatsApp is a messaging application of choice in most countries, Messenger comes in second place, and is an application of choice in countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada and France.

Either Way, Facebook wins when it comes to messaging applications, but the question is whether integrating Messenger features back to the main application will help business, or have users looking for long-term alternatives.