Facebook Home’s Chat Heads are coming to Android — only without Facebook Home attached. 

Facebook has added the feature to the latest version of its Android Messenger app, which now works largely the same as it does within Facebook Home: When people send you messages, their Chat Heads pop up over whatever app you’re using. Once you click them,  Messenger app opens up, letting you chat to your leisure.

A glowing critique, I guess.

I used the feature on a Nexus 7, and the whole experience seemed pretty zippy, and, surprisingly, not at all annoying. This is the same experience VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell had when she tried out the function in her review of the HTC First. Somehow, Facebook has found a way to make persistent chat notifications — which I am instinctually wary of — a decent experience. 

Of course, it helps that the chat head notifications don’t hop up and down like they would on, say OS X, nor do they flash alarmingly as they would on Windows. Instead they sit, mostly patiently for you do click, drag, or dismiss them. Color me a fan.

It’s not all perfect, however. One thing Messenger doesn’t handle very well so far is situations where you’re having a conversation with someone across both SMS and Facebook chat. In these situations, Facebook treats multi-source conversations like different threads — even if they’re with the same person. That’s a bit disappointing, and sort of throws a wrench in the largely seamless Chat Heads/Messenger experience.

The whole thing isn’t exactly”people first”, and hopefully it’s something that Facebook fixes somewhere down the line. 

MessageMe has been busy since its launch a week and a half ago. The messaging application has been cut off from Facebook’s Open Graph, raised $1.9 million in seed funding, and attracted more than 1 million users.

MessageMe offers iOS and Android apps that send rich messages over Wi-Fi and mobile data to friends, family, or groups. The app also lets you share YouTube videos, iTunes songs, voice recordings, emoticons, and other things you might not share over traditional text messaging.

MessageMe had been tapping into Facebook’s Open Graph to help users find their friends on the service. But similar to what happened with Voxer, Facebook blocked MessageMe’s access to Open Graph data over concerns the app was too similar to the functions of the Facebook Messenger app.

Still, people are clearly digging MessageMe — the service said it is sending 500 notifications per second worldwide; and in the U.S. alone, more than 10 million doodles and more than 4 million iTunes songs have been shared.

“We launched MessageMe a little over a week ago on the App Store, and we’re excited about the feedback we’ve received so far — many people have made MessageMe their primary messaging platform, and that’s awesome,” the company said in a blog post today. “We spent the last year building MessageMe with the goal to deliver a fun, rich, and engaging experience by adding expression to messaging. We believe a core communication service like messaging can, and should, do more to keep up with the technological advances in the smartphone market.”

The new seed funding came from a collection of top-tier investors, including Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, True Ventures, First Round Capital, SVAngel, Resolut.vc, and Social+Capital Partnership.

Top photo via MessageMe

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

After launching voice calls for Canadian iPhone users earlier this month, Facebook today began rolling out the feature for those in the U.S.

To send and receive voice calls, you’ll need to install Facebook’s standalone Messenger app for the iPhone. Then select a person to chat with, choose the “i” button in the top right of the screen, and select “Free voice call.” Unfortunately, Android users only have the capability to send voice messages, which also previously launched in Canada.

For Facebook users, voice calls are an added layer of convenience. Now you can get in touch with friends even if you don’t know their phone numbers, or if you’re somewhere with spotty cellular reception (but a steady Internet connection).

While a strangely quiet upgrade for Facebook, the move is no less significant. It pits the company squarely against popular Internet calling apps like Rebtel, Viber, and Skype. In the end, the less reason users have to leave the company’s apps, the better for Facebook.

While it’s somewhat awkward to use now since it requires a separate app, you can expect the voice calling feature to make its way into Facebook’s primary mobile app eventually.  We’ve already seen Facebook bring over features first found on its Messenger app. And once Facebook is confident in the voice calling feature, expect it to be prominently displayed, instead of hidden in an obscure menu.

Via The Verge

Facebook has just announced a spiffy new feature. Through Facebook Messages, you can send voicemail to your Facebook friends.

This new feature has just been added to the most recent version of Facebook’s iOS and Android mobile applications.

Perhaps more interesting, Facebook is also testing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling (à la Skype). This product test will be rolling out first to Facebook for iOS users in — wait for it — Canada.

Finally, someone puts Canada first. Good on ya, Canadians.

“To use this new feature, simply tap the ‘+’ next to the box where you write a message, then tap ‘Record’ and hold down the record button to talk,” writes our Facebook source in an email.

“When you’re ready to send, just release the button. Letting go sends the voice message, sliding off it cancels the message.”

Here’s what the new feature looks like:

You can listen to voice messages either from the Messenger app or from Facebook.com.

To test the voice calling feature, Facebook iOS users in Canada can start a phone conversation with a Facebook friend by tapping the “i” button in the top right corner. From there, just tap ‘Free Call’ to start the VoIP call.

The VoIP calls use your phone’s data plan rather than your phone’s calling minutes. Anyone wishing to use VoIP calling features needs to update to the newest version of the app.

A Facebook source let us know that the company is evaluating the pilot program in Canada and will start looking at other geographies once Facebook gets adequate feedback from Canadian users.

We’ll have more details in just a few minutes; stay tuned!

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Forget buying WhatsApp — Facebook wants to completely replace it.

Facebook is making its strongest effort yet to create its own texting empire with the latest update to Facebook Messenger for Android: Starting today, users will no longer need a Facebook account in order to use the app which Facebook hopes will get a lot more people to use it.

With the move, Facebook is clearly making a play at being the go-to app for not only messaging, but texting as a whole. The update’s appeal for users should be clear, too: Using Messenger now means freeing yourself from carriers’ SMS stranglehold, which is loosening by the day, anyway.

For Facebook, the move is also aimed at roping new users into its social ecosystem. After all, once users install Messenger, they’re not too far from creating a Facebook account as well.

The one big drawback here is rollout: Only India, Indonesia, Venezuela  Australia, and South Africa will get the feature at first, though it shouldn’t be long before it makes its way to other countries (and iOS, too).

While SMS and WhatsApp seem like the most obvious targets here, it’s RIM that should really be worried  While the BlackBerry Messenger is still number one in countries like Indonesia, it’s clear that Facebook is serious about stealing some of that interest in favor of its own messaging platform.

Whether that will happen is still unknown, but we do know this: SMS, your days are numbered.

Facebook’s iPhone app is now sporting features first seen in the company’s standalone Messenger app: now you can swipe left from anywhere inside the app to access your friends and instantly begin chatting.

With version 5.1 of Facebook’s iPhone app, which just launched today, you can also add friends to the top of your favorites list and easily share multiple photos. It also adds support for Facebook’s intriguing Gifts feature, which allows you to send real gifts to your friends.

It was only a matter of time before Facebook simplified chatting within its app, even though it’s now accomplishing the same thing as the Messenger application. The new chat interface also lets you easily see if your friends are active.

I haven’t had a chance to try out Facebook’s Gift service yet, but as VentureBeat’s Jolie O’Dell has explored in-depth, it’s a fascinating way for Facebook users to easily bridge their online and real-life personas. We can also thank Facebook’s speedy new app development cycle for seeing an update so quickly after Facebook completely revamped its iPhone app.

Photo via: Fiduz/Flickr

Hey dude, you there?

Firefox users can now respond in record time to those pressing pings from Facebook friends thanks to a collaboration between Mozilla and the social network.

Mozilla announced Monday that Firefox Beta testers can upgrade to the newest release of the not-yet-perfected software to get Facebook Messenger baked into their web browsing experience.

Messenger sits in an adjacent sidebar and is the first product of Mozilla’s Social API, which will eventually power additional social features from third-party providers.

Facebook users will notice that Messenger in Firefox looks and feels just as it does on Facebook.com, only carried across each page that they visit. Friends available for chat, along with Ticker updates, are included in the sidebar, and new pings appear in separate chat windows. Messenger can also be hidden should your Facebook pals get too noisy.

The integration underscores Firefox maker Mozilla’s commitment to bringing social to the web in a way that makes sense.

“Rather than being focused on a particular task, we use social sites throughout our day: we check back for updates, we chat with friends, we share. When we started to integrate social into Firefox, this was our guiding principle: make it easy to stay connected; stop treating social like ‘just another tab,’” the Firefox team wrote in a blog post.

To get Facebook Messenger for Firefox, download Firefox Beta and enable the integration.

Photo credit: flod/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Facebook yesterday updated its standalone Messenger app on iOS to fully support the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, while also adding some useful features for chat addicts.

In addition to general speed improvements, the Messenger app now lets you swipe left to instantly get access to your favorite Facebook chat buddies, as well as to see who’s online. The design of Messenger’s conversations has also been updated with chat bubbles — giving the app a look more reminiscent of IM applications and Apple’s iMessage.

The updates make it clearer who this app is for: hardcore Facebook messaging users. It’s now an even more useful way for Facebook users to chat with their friends without dealing with all of the features in the company’s bigger app.

Facebook last month completely revamped its iOS app with a slew of speed improvements. The social network also recently updated its Android app with an intriguing messaging feature: the ability to combine texts and Facebook messages in a single interface. Unfortunately, that feature will never be possible within iOS, given Apple’s strict restrictions with its software.

Facebook’s 11-month-old Messenger mobile app for sending texts and exchanging photos and locations with friends, is putting on its big boy pants today, maturing into a full-featured chat and messaging service with bigger photos, better notifications, and all-around improved performance.

Messenger, updated for iPhone and Android Monday, comes with enhanced push notifications and new in-app notifications, which are designed to make it easier for the Facebook chatty Cathy to switch between multiple conversations faster.

Version 1.8 allows users to share larger photos so that recipients can view full-screen photos and pinch to zoom in. The tweaked app also introduces the ability for group chatters to include friends of friends in threads. It also adds little goodies such as the ability to swipe (iPhone) or tap (Android) to delete individual messages from conversations.

The app should be noticeably speedier, as Facebook has made Messenger faster to load, swifter to navigate, and hastier when it comes to sending and receiving messages.

Combine today’s updates with earlier improvements that introduced read receipts, and location and real-time typing indicators, and what you get is a far more complete messaging app that can better go head-to-head with app makers, carriers, and Apple in the messaging area.

Facebook, then, is sending us the message that it’s not only committed to perfecting its cross-platform messaging app, but that it wants Messenger to become your default app for mobile communication.

[via The Verge]

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In an effort to eradicate some of the challenges associated with text-based communication, Facebook has today updated the iOS and Android versions of Messenger, the social network’s cross-platform messaging-only app.

Version 1.7 of Facebook Messenger for iPhone and Android, out today, keeps conversations flowing between friends with three new features. The app lets you know who has seen your messages, gives you the ability to see where your friends are messaging you from, and includes a more visible real-time typing indicator.

“The new Messenger clients for both iOS and Android make mobile messaging more conversational, especially when texting groups of friends on the go,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Perhaps the most useful feature is the “seen by” indicator that shows you which of your friends have read your messages. It essentially acts like a read receipt (like in BBM or iMessage) and should come handy when chatting with groups. Sorry, fibbers, this does mean you can no longer plead ignorance on the Facebook messages you’ve read.

The other improvements are convenient little touches meant to make conversations feel more contextual and fluid. The location and app-type indicators, for instance, show you when a friend is messaging you from near or far (with an included map) via their mobile device. This is information that could come in handy when trying to arrange an impromptu get together.

Today’s additions are quintessential Facebook — sharing more by doing less. Sure, you may sacrifice a little privacy in favor of better conversations, but the exchanges are with people you presumably like, so maybe more information is better. And location-sharing is always optional for those who’d rather not reveal that they’re just around block from a frenemy they don’t want to see.

[hat tip: TechCrunch]

Photo credit: JPott/Flickr

Facebook is officially launching its first Windows desktop app today.

Facebook Messenger, which allows you to see and respond to Facebook activity, including chat messages, will allow users to keep up with their friends and Facebook activity directly from the desktop.

The app was previewed at the end of last year, but while the previous version was made available after a tech press leak, today’s version is the official release of the product.

“The app was largely built by our engineering team based in Seattle,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat this morning via email. The Seattle office was opened just shy of two years ago; at the time, Facebooker Ari Steinberg wrote that the site was chosen for its “strong history of innovation and is home to thousands of talented technical people who we want to help us solve the challenges of designing and building the next generation of Facebook.” Clearly, desktop apps were relatively high on the to-do list for this team.

“Our focus is to enable people to access Messenger from the platform of their choice,” the Facebook rep continued. Right now, the app is live for Windows users only, but the team said a Mac app is also in the works. No word on a Linux version yet, my fellow neckbeards. The app is already available for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry mobile devices.

When you turn Messenger on, you’ll start getting Ticker-like notices. Ticker is the lightweight news feed that runs in your sidebar and features likes and other, low-priority updates from your friends. Ticker was announced last fall at Facebook’s f8 developer conference.

Ticker also includes “Actions” activity from apps, including media consumption, gameplay updates, and lifestyle app milestones from your friends.

“You can see the latest updates from your friends in Ticker on Messenger,” said our Facebook spokesperson, “so you will see the items you would see in Ticker — tags, comments and more. The notifications you see are the same you would see when you access Facebook.com and are based on your notification settings.”

Update: Facebook has made the download link available in the Help Center.

Facebook is busy perfecting a Messenger desktop application for Windows that compacts the best of Facebook — chat, ticker and notifications — into an always-accessible, dock-able miniature window. The social network may not be ready to officially show Messenger for Windows to the world, but don’t let that stop you from getting it now.

The trial application was initially released to a small group of Facebook users in late November. The folks at TechIT, however, have leaked the download link, which means Messenger for Windows is available to anyone running Windows 7.

“We are continuing to make Facebook Messenger easily accessible across platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Messenger is available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and we’re testing Messenger for Windows, a new desktop application.”

So what does it do? The desktop client lets you use Facebook while browsing the rest of the web without needing to be on Facebook.com. It’s far more sophisticated than the mobile app versions for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry that focus specifically on Facebook chat.

Messenger for Windows supports chat, of course, but also includes ticker updates and a mini blue Facebook bar for the same real-time notifications you see on the site.

The application is, by default, undocked, which means you can drag it and move it about your screen. You can also optionally click the dock icon, located in the bottom-right corner, to affix the app to the right side of your screen.

Messenger is noticeably missing group chat and video calls, but a help center entry hints that these features may be on their way.

The social network is clearly experimenting with ways to encourage perpetual Facebook usage. There are, of course, several third-party applications that offer off-Facebook social networking activities — especially Facebook chat — but the company seems best positioned to build an application for mainstream adoption.

via The Verge

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Facebook’s Messenger application may be adding video chat features, according to a rumor on Italian technology blog iPhoneItalia.

The blog’s source is reporting that Facebook has released a beta test of the new video feature to developers only. The rumor has some credibility since the same source previously said Facebook was planning to let users of its Messenger app chat with friends outside of the social network — a feature which has since been released.

The source grabbed rough screenshots showing the beginnings of a video chat feature, which can be seen to the right. The screenshots look too doctored to put much stock in them, but we can’t immediately rule out the possibility of a Facebook mobile video chat. In fact, it makes sense.

The social-media company’s desktop client already allows for video chatting, and many other companies are still interested in mobile video chat, including Skype, Tango and Google. Google’s social network Google+ has its own popular video chat function, Hangouts. Hangouts allows you to video chat with multiple people at one time for free through the social network. Since launching its Android app, Google+ has supported mobile video chat, but is still unavailable on iOS devices.

If this feature is legitimate, it will be a win for Facebook over Google+’s Hangouts. The source said the chat function will be released on the iPhone 4 and 4S, with no word on other device compatibility.

“[GroupMe] complements our existing leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class mobile text-based communications and innovative features around group messaging that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties,” said Skype CEO Tony Bates in a blog post.

Both Facebook and Google recently released their own offerings targeted at group messaging with Facebook Messenger and Google+’s Huddle. Skype’s decision to buy GroupMe shows it wants to make sure it also has its group communication bases covered. It should pair well with the services it already offers, including video calling, global calling, instant messaging, and text messaging services.

Skype is still in the process of being acquired by Microsoft. The big M said in May that it would buy Skype for $8.5 billion and as soon as the deal is completed, we will likely see Skype integrated into Xbox 360, Kinect, Windows Phone and Office 365. GroupMe’s application and technology would also help Microsoft flesh out its mobile offerings as it continues to expand Windows Phone 7′s presence and capabilities.

It’s a remarkable way for GroupMe’s startup story to close, as the company is barely more than a year old. The first version of GroupMe was built during a weekend in May 2010 during a hackathon programming contest hosted by TechCrunch. Investors quickly took notice and the company raised $850,000 in its first seed round of fundraising from places like Ron Conway’s SV Angel and Lerner Ventures. And back in January, GroupMe raised $10.6 million, with funding led by Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners and First Round Capital.

GroupMe’s offices and its 20 employees will stay in New York. “As part of the deal, GroupMe will remain in New York, team intact, working on our standalone application,” GroupMe announced on its company blog. “The major difference will be that we will now have access to Skype’s 175 million monthly connected users.”

Are you a fan of GroupMe? What do you think of the acquisition?

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Apple’s Wozniak calls Android the winner in smartphone race — Oh Woz, we love it when you shoot from the hip.

Can the internet bring down the TSA’s new enhanced pat-down search, also known as “touch my junk”? — Would-be traveler John Tyner has become a cause célèbre on the internet because he refused to subject himself to what he considered to be invasive body searching at the San Diego airport.

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Google investor John Doerr: Zynga is our best company ever — Doerr, the legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist, gave high praise to Zynga, the leading social game company, saying it was one of the best investments his firm had ever made

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Battle for your texts: Facebook Messages vs. Kik mobile chat — Now that we’ve seen Facebook’s new messaging service, it’s clearly not the threat to email we previously thought. But the new messaging service could pose a problem for the hot mobile chat startup Kik, which we’ve covered extensively.

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Developers: Get ready for your closeup in VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight — Are you an app developer with a creation that’s ready for the klieg lights? VentureBeat has partnered with Intel to provide a new showcase for your mobile app: VentureBeat’s Mobile App Spotlight.