A mysterious “VoIP button” has been spotted on the wilds of Facebook.
Unfortunately, the “Call” icon – which appeared next to the “Chat,” “Send Message” and “Poke” buttons – was removed shortly after its initial sighting.
According to AroundThe.Net, the enigmatic icon was spotted by an acquaintance based in Israel.
“When he clicked on the call button, a Facebook box opened with the word ‘calling’ next to the the icon of his friend,” an AroundThe.Net rep told TG Daily.
“Sadly, the call failed to connect and our tipster tells us he doesn’t believe his friend even got a notification of the call. A few minutes later, the button disappeared from his Facebook.”
The rep said that other Israeli Facebook users may have also encountered the mysterious calling icon.
“This may indicate that Facebook is working with an Israeli VoIP firm to implement it,” added the rep.
Note: Thiago Camargo of xmppjingle recently speculated that Facebook was almost certainly interested in expanding its communication profile to include “real-time interaction,” such as voice and video capabilities.
“As we know Facebook supports XMPP for Chat, meaning you can use your preferred XMPP Client to use Facebook for Chat,” explained Camargo.
“But do you really think Facebook rolled out XMPP support only for Chat? If so, you are indeed wrong.”
Of course, Vonage released an app in August that enables iPhone and Android users to make free VoIP calls to Facebook friends who have the app.
Nevertheless, FB itself has yet to roll out an indigenous audio/video chat feature.
