Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made an official announcement on Wednesday, July 6, 2011, stating their users are now able to make video calls via facebook. The new skype-powered feature was launched shortly after Zuckerberg’s announcement on Wednesday afternoon. As an additional feature, you can also record a video message if the person you’re calling is not available.
Here are the short steps to set up Facebook Video Calling. There is a one-time download required to add the plugin. This is only required once per device.
After logging into your account on facebook type in the following URL: facebook.com/videocalling
It will bring you to the ‘Video Calling – Get Started’ screen
Getting Started
Once you click on the green ‘Get Started’ button, you can then choose a friend you would like to begin the video call with. When you click on the selected friend, the ‘Set up video calling’ screen will appear.
Set Up
This is where installation process begins. Now click on the blue ‘Set Up’ option
At this time the Video Calling plugin will begin downloading onto your computer. This initial download will only happen once per device. This process takes only a few minutes to complete. Be patient, it’s worth the wait!
Facebook Video Calling Downloading
After the download is complete, be sure to ‘Run the downloaded file’
Run File
Now, the real fun begins! The friend you choose to video call, in the earlier step, will now appear in the chat window with a the new video call icon beside your friends name. As you can see, I chose my old roommate and good friend, Steven Knapp (you should follow him on twitter, he’s pretty witty).
Video Calling Begins
It’s all downhill from here. The difficult part is over and now you can enjoy a face-to-face conversation via facebook!
World, meet Steven. Steven, meet the world! You will have to excuse his cheesy grin and as his wife says… “his creepy eyes.” Nonetheless, we love you, Stebo, and thanks for your participation.
For the most part, the entire process is fairly seamless. However you if you have questions or issues let us know in the comments.
