Facebook integrates video calling

Facebook has announced the integration of free skype video calls on their platform, a tool that is available from today on the social network, which will also incorporate the possibility of group chat.

The video call option will appear as a new button in the menu of the social network and will require the installation of browser software that won't take more than "30 seconds", according to its creators.

"It's awesome and easy to use," said co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, at the presentation of the social network's new feature, held today at the company headquarters in Palo Alto in Northern California.

At the moment the video calling is only available on Facebook for conversations between two users, although Zuckerberg did not rule out that later it could be offered to a group.

At present, the service is designed to run on computers and is not compatible with mobile platforms.

Skype's CEO, Tony Bates, said the partnership with Facebook is part of the long-term strategy of their company and said that in the future some Skype payment services could also be offered on the social network.

Skype was acquired this year by Microsoft, a company that has a large stake in Facebook.

Along with the video call service, Zuckerberg announced a change in chat design and a new feature to create group conversations.

As of now, Facebook users can see a tab on the right side of the screen with an extensive menu of the profiles contacts they communicate with the most, to encourage the use of chat, which in its own window will have a button to add people to a conversation.

Zuckerberg used the event to confirm that Facebook had surpassed 750 million users around the world and pointed to a change in the life cycle of social networks.

The last five years have been about growth in user numbers, but the driving narrative will now be on the applications you can build once you have built the social infrastructure," said Zuckerberg, who gave the video call service launched today as an example. 

Zuckerberg insisted that Facebook does not have plans to focus on developing their own applications, with exceptions such as its partnership with Skype, and left it in the hands of "independent entrepreneurs".

"The applications that we see in the future will be extremely different," added the co-founder of Facebook, who said that people currently share 4 billion items through the social network every day.