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  • Facebook now lets you know if your friends are using mobile app or the web

    We'd hardly call it a ground-breaking feature, but it's pretty nice that Facebook now lets you know whether the friends you're chatting with are using the mobile app or the website. To the right of a user's name you'll now see the words "web" or "mobile," letting you know whether or not a buddy is seated in front of their PC and ready to chat, or out and about firing off rather brief replies. People started noticing the new feature pop up yesterday, but now the social network has confirmed that it's rolling out the statuses globally. If you're not seeing it just yet, be patient. A few Engadget editors are seeing the web/mobile messages on the site already, but we're not having luck yet with the mobile app.

    Terrence O'Brien
    11.19.2013

  • Facebook video chat and Skype 5.5 beta hands-on

    Earlier today, Facebook and Skype got a little friendlier, making it easy to find your Facebook friends in Skype and -- more importantly -- video chat with your Facebook friends in Facebook, a service powered by -- you got it -- Skype. Since you're using Skype either way you slice it, we're not interested so much in the call quality as we are the ease of use. Just how easy is it to make video calls using Facebook chat, which, simply put, has never been our favorite IM service? And what's it like seeing your list of potential Skype callers expand to include all your Facebook buddies? Let's venture past the break to find out. %Gallery-127843%

    Dana Wollman
    07.06.2011

  • Facebook to launch in-browser video chat powered by Skype?

    Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype hasn't closed yet, but it looks like Redmond is already working behind the scenes to make the service even more ubiquitous. According to an anonymous source interviewed by TechCrunch, Facebook is going to introduce video chat next week, and that service will be powered by none other than Skype. And while the service will be browser-based, it's also said to include a desktop component. We'd say none of that sounds too fantastical -- video calls would be a logical extension of Facebook chat, and let's not forget about the $240 million Microsoft invested in the site back in 2007. What's more, Facebook sent out invites for an event next week, where Mark Zuckerberg was clear the outfit would unveil a new product from its Seattle team. That's in Microsoft's backyard, of course, the invites themselves have chat icons on 'em, and, most tellingly, that Seattle office has been snapping up engineers specializing in desktop software. All told, that adds up to a likely true story to us, but we won't know for sure until the long, beachy weekend is through.

    Dana Wollman
    07.02.2011

  • Windows Phone 7 'Mango' to bring Office 365, Facebook Chat, more Xbox Live integration?

    The Windows Phone Dev Podcast unearthed some seemingly legit Windows Phone 7 screenshots last week that revealed a few new features apparently headed to the mobile OS, and it's now back with another batch that show yet more additions said to be included with the so-called "Mango" update. That includes support for Facebook Chat and Office 365 (plus SkyDrive and SharePoint), as well as a revamped Games hub that suggests even more Xbox Live integration (including a rather interesting new "Automatic Sync" option). What's more, the lock screen will apparently now show the album art if there is a song currently playing, and it seems there will be some new group messaging options as well. Of course, all that's still unconfirmed by Microsoft, but you can judge all the screenshots for yourself at the link below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

    Donald Melanson
    05.15.2011

  • Facebook for Android updated with chat and push notifications

    Facebook chat addict? How about an Android phone owner? Well, if you answered "yes" to both of those questions, you're in luck this lovely evening. Closing the gap a bit between its Android and iOS offerings, Facebook has finally gone and added both chat and push notifications to version 1.5 of its Android app. It took us less than a minute to install the update from the Market, launch the app, and confirm that the chat button was indeed locked on the homescreen. Naturally, being the crazy tech writers that you know us to be, we sent a chat message to our friend Mike, and seconds later we got a push notification alerting us that he had responded with a clever "what's up?" How's that for killing two birds with one stone? We took some quick shots of the new features below, but you know you'd rather go try it out yourself. %Gallery-110583%

    Joanna Stern
    12.14.2010