Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook has finally rolled out a new feature to its U.S. Android users that now allows them to initiate a free voice call with one of their Facebook friends. The voice calling feature will be available automatically, meaning you won’t have to go to Google Play to download an update. The feature has been available to iOS users for quite some time now, and Android users in Canada had the feature since early March. The voice calling feature uses up your data plan instead of your actual minutes, so if you’re on a tiered data plan, proceed with caution.

In order to initiate a free voice call, all you have to do is choose the contact that you want to call. You have to initiate a text conversation first. Afterwards, you will see an “i” icon at the top right of the message box. Click on that and you will have access to 3 separate options, one that says “Free Call”. If you’re using Chat Heads, you can initiate a free voice call by tapping the 3 dots that appear next to your contact’s name.

Facebook Messenger really has become an all-in-one messaging service. Not only does Facebook Messenger allow you to instant message your Facebook friends, it also lets you to integrate your SMS texts into it, allowing you to consolidate your conversations. Alongside this new free calling feature, all Facebook really needs to add is a video-calling feature for Android devices and it will truly be an all-in-one service.

Facebook is trying its best to get more users to stray away from other popular messaging apps, like WhatsApp, and migrate over to its messaging platform. Just a few days ago, WhatsApp announced that it has over 200 million active users on its service, a number Facebook desperately wants. Messenger poses a good threat against WhatsApp now that it has all of these features tied into it. This new feature will also be helpful in making its Facebook Home launcher more appealing to users. If you haven’t tested out Facebook Home yet, you can check out our review of Facebook Home here to see what it’s all about.

Facebook Messenger for Android updated with free voice calling is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Not content to own your phone’s home screen, Facebook is bringing free VoIP calling to users of its Home and Android Messenger apps in the US. The social network’s VoIP for iOS has been available in the US for a few months now, and Android users are already enjoying the service in 23 other countries, including Canada. Stateside, the VoIP for Android will roll out over the course of the day, and it shouldn’t require a manual update; users will know they have the new VoIP feature if they can click the “i” icon on a friend’s profile and then select “free call.” From Chat Heads, starting a call requires tapping the “more info” dots next to a friend’s name to jump into the Messenger app.

[Image credit: Gizmodo]

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Google Play

Skype has just announced that its users have broken another milestone today. As of today, Skype says that all of its users use a total of 2 billion minutes a day to call their acquaintances, friends, and family members. That’s one day. Now we can see why France wants to tax the VoIP service. Skype has come a long way since its debut, and is now available on almost any device with a screen. You can get it on your PC, Mac, iOS devices, Androids, Windows Phones, and even your TV.

Skype gives us a general idea of what someone can do in 2 billion minutes. It says that 2 billion minutes equals “33 million hours of people singing, laughing, joking, and staying in touch.” It also equals 1,388,000 days, more than 3,805 years, spent on Skype in just a single day. You could travel to the moon and back over 225,000 times, or even walk around the Earth more than 845 times. There are many more examples Skype provides that shows us just how amazing 2 billion minutes spent on Skype means.

There is always something Skype is looking to add onto its service. Just a couple of months ago, Skype added a new video messaging feature to its service that lets users send personal video recordings to their friends. Users are only limited to 20 video messages, however, they can always upgrade to a premium Skype account to send an unlimited amount. That way, you can send as many 3-minute long videos to your friends as you want.

As of right now, Skype is focusing more on enhancing its service on the Windows Phone 8 platform. It has recently added HD Video calling to Windows Phone 8 devices and will integrate your Skype contacts into your device so that you can call or message them straight from the People Hub. You are able to send a quick instant message, or make a free VoIP call through WiFi or 3G. Skype is asking its users to tweet to it using the #2billion hashtag and telling it what they use their minutes for.

[via Skype]

Skype users talk about 2 billion minutes a day is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google and Twilio are teaming up to bring developers cloud-powered tools that will help them integrate their apps with VoIP and messaging services. Twilio has partnered up with Google’s Cloud Platform, making it the first voice and messaging API available through the Google App Engine. With its API, developers are able to easily integrate messaging and VoIP capabilities into their apps with just a few lines of code.

With the Twilio API and the Google App Engine, developers are able to go above and beyond just “one-to-one” messaging and VoIP calls. They can easily build a group messaging app, implement messaging capabilities that will allow users to send business cards via SMS text messaging, develop an “on-call scheduling” system on their app, enable voice conferencing within their app, and much more.

Developers are offered 2,000 free text messages or voice minutes to help them get started with the API integration. Now that Twilio is integrated with the Google App Engine, there are 250,000 active developers have access to its solution. These developers have already developed a total of 1 million registered apps on Google’s App Engine, meaning that Twilio has potentially discovered a huge goldmine for its services.

Twilio isn’t the only one benefiting from this partnership, however. Google is also hoping that Twilio will be able to attract developers away from other platforms like Amazon Web Services. In order to do so, Google needs to offer developers a lot more functions that they can implement into their apps, as well as offer developers a way to create highly scalable apps. The Google App Engine product manager, Chris Ramsdale, stated,

“Finding a way to run applications quickly, securely and at scale is a hurdle for a variety of developers across web ad mobile, which App Engine is a strong solution for.”

[via Twilio]

Twilio joins with Google to bring voice and messaging API to developers is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Viber with VOIP enabled would be coming to Windows Phone 8 in the near future, sometime towards the end of March and early April. While the app has yet to make its way into the Windows Phone Store, the good news is that the wait could be coming to an end. According to TruTower, Viber for Windows Phone 8 has been submitted to the Windows Phone Store and is currently awaiting approval, meaning that if everything goes according to plan, it may very well be released sometime later this week. We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for more information on when the app launches, but in the meantime if you happen to chance across it in the Windows Phone Store, do not hesitate to drop a comment or send us an email!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Android Market Share Dominates iOS Once Again In U.S., Tok.tv Baseball App Features Voice Chat Along With Sports Stats,