iPhone owners: snag free phone calls with updated Facebook Messenger app

Facebook’s released an update to its Messenger app and so, users can now send quick voice messages and best of all, make free phone calls with an integrated VoIP client. Here’s the best part: since practically everyone we know and love is on Facebook, the messenger app has inadvertently become a feasible replacement for cellular calls.

So it’s not Skype, which crashes more often than it should on our iPhones, it’s something else entirely. We usually concern ourselves with gadgets, but this is a gadget replacer.

The little phone icon next to the users name is where the magic happens

Making a call over wireless and mobile internet is nothing new, but Facebook’s gone and made the process as streamlined as possible. Plus, money is saved. Delicious money. From the short time we had to test the app, we found that it has one major issue, in that there is no ringing, simply a phone call notification. So if you’re not paying attention, you’re going to be missing a few phone calls. Outside of this, it works and the sound was crystal clear.

The ramifications are dire for cellular providers. Voice calls are an expense, a major one for most. But using Skype/Fring/whatever for voice calls seems counterproductive when one app, which is already in control of our social lives, can do it for us. Download the updated Facebook Messenger for free from the US app store.