We already like Skype and, despite ambivalence, we're trained to use Facebook, so an announcement that
brings the two together has our
interest. Facebook Video Chat,
announced at today's (debatably) "awesome" event , integrates Skype video calling into Facebook Chat. It isn't
perfect—the video quality is average
and calling is restricted to one friend, for
now—but the new feature makes video
calling a whole lot more convenient for Facebook's 750 million users.
You can get Facebook Video Chat today
by navigating to facebook.com/videocalling . On Facebook.com, you can initiate your first call by
opening a chat with an active, Webcam-equipped
friend and clicking the video camera icon to start
a video call. The first time isn't entirely effortless. I had to
install a Java file on my MacBook Pro, but
thankfully it's a tiny (29KB) one-time deal. From
there, starting a call with PCMag junior analyst Jill
Duffy was easy: The video started up quickly and
the quality was acceptable for personal use (and it's Facebook, after all). Facebook Video Chat is a minimalist at heart. In
the vein of FaceTime, a video call occurs in a small, button-free window with edge-to-edge
video. When I cursored over the video, the
window buttons were revealed and the size of
my video feed (tucked in the top-left corner)
expanded slightly. From here, I could end a
session by clicking the "x" or launch a full-screen conversation by clicking the maximize button. After I finished chatting with Jill, I brought in
PCMag software analyst Michael Muchmore, who reviewed Skype 5.3 for Windows . At first we hit a snag: The call initiated as it had with Jill, but I
was unable to see his video feed. Once I quit and
re-launched the chat, however, it worked as
expected. While Michael was impressed with the
simplicity of the experience, he found the quality,
especially from my video feed, underwhelming, though this could be attributable to my standard-
fare, built-in Webcam. Facebook Video Chat won't soon replace the
standalone Skype client. It doesn't have the
valuable features, HD video quality, or multi-party
video chat. It does, however, make Skype video
calls incredibly convenient by embedding the
definitive conferencing service in the definite social network. Take a look at the enclosed
slideshow for a detailed account of our first
experience with Facebook Video Chat.
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