Facebook Messenger Joins The Group Video Chat, 3D Masks Game

Remember the days when you'd juggle half a dozen communication services just to keep up with family and friends? Well, those good old days are back with even more messaging apps and services offering nearly the same set of features. Their only difference is that some of your friends may or may not be using the same service. Trying to keep pace with other players, Facebook has finally given its Messenger service group video chat capabilities, finally fulfilling its most requested feature ever.

Perhaps there was wisdom in Facebook extracting Messenger from its main app. It has given Facebook the freedom to bloat grow it into its own service and identity. What started out as a simple chatting subset of Facebook has now become a full-blown communications service, especially with the addition of the group video chat feature.

This is no video conferencing, mind you. Technically, a single group chat has room for up to 50 participants, but if you have that much, only the dominant speaker will be visible to everyone. For best results, a group of 6 is ideal, where each will have their live video feed visible for all to see.

The group video chat also includes the whimsy of one-on-one video chat, like 3D masks to make you look like Santa or some other mythical creature. That, however, is currently available only for iOS, with Android promised to follow suit. The new video chat capabilities, however, is available on all updated Messenger apps, including iOS, Android, and the desktop.

SOURCE: Facebook