Facebook app to offer free phone calls

FACEBOOK users can now phone each other for free with a new Skype-like feature being introduced to the network’s Messenger mobile app.

Facebook is testing the new "free call" feature that will allow American users to phone each other through the app over a wi-fi connection, avoiding carrier call charges.

Voice calls can only be made to other Facebook users who also have the free-call enabled Messenger installed on their iPhone. Users cannot call a Facebook friend who is logged in through the website, or call a landline or other mobile phone.

The test is currently limited to iPhone users in the US, with a spokesperson for Facebook Australia saying there was no news about the feature being rolled out to other countries.

However a Facebook spokesman in the UK told the BBC the company was expected to expand the feature overseas, as well as to include it in apps for other operating systems.

source news.com.au