A killer feature Facebook needs now: Video Chat

Posted on : 03-26-2010 | By : Vadim Lavrusik | In : Facebook, Social Media, Video

Tags: Facebook, gchat, google chat, mobile, skype, Social Media, video chat

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Facebook is quickly becoming the primary social communication channel in our everyday lives. Yes, primary. We spend much more time obsessively interacting with people on Facebook than we do by phone and for some a life-line. I think that they could take it one step further by implementing video chat capability — a functionality that has garnered 521 million users for Skype (not the only reason for its success). Apparently last year Facebook began to include hints in its code that it may be implementing such a feature, but no news of it has been released since.

ReadWriteWeb has a great piece about the social needs that Chatroulette — the video chat site that pairs people randomly — fills for users: the craving for peeking, face-to-face online, control, and the “no commitment effect.” I want to focus on the need for face-to-face communication with people.

I don’t have the numbers for this, and if you have them I would love to see them, but anecdotally I have a lot of friends that are growing discontent with social networking starting to feel impersonal or detached, at least when it comes to conversations and chats on Facebook. Short, brief blurts of conversation back and forth with friends or family. Waiting for the slow reply as their friends multi-task. The conversation can be disjointed. This experience is of course does not represent a majority of the people out there, and I don’t really mind my experience on Facebook chat (or other chat service), but I can still empathize.

More people want a face-to-face communication, especially with family members who are far away. The default right now is Skype, but not everyone has the service, and some people use Google Chat’s video feature. Again, not everyone has a G-mail account. Imagine if Facebook had an option for you to chat with friend using a video chat feature.

Next, this could be integrated into its mobile application, allowing you to chat and communicate with friends on-the-go (of course this would require phones with two video screens). Not sure if the folks at Facebook are working on this already, but I sure hope they are at least thinking about it. Would love your thoughts on this. Here is an example of what it would look like (taken from Facebook chat and G-Chat and meshed together):

So what say you Mark Zuckerberg?

shanesnow

Wow I totally look bald in this picture! Don't worry everybody - it's just an awkward cutoff of the frame at the top of my head!
Mich Sineath

Facebook can't get regular chat right, so jumping to video would be premature. And who are all of these people requesting this feature? I don't want more face-to-face communication. It's still in the a.m. here so I'm in my pj's. Now I have to get dressed to go online? No, thanks. For me, voice is just fine. Video chat feels more like a natural evolution -- the step before the step where we get what we really want and haven't thought of yet -- rather than a want or need.

I've participated in enough video chats to know that just because there's a camera present doesn't force the participants to pay more attention. I can still see my friends and family turn away, walk away, or look up something online. And can you imagine the onslaught of new "news" networks to pop up. We'll have so many http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil 's we won't know what to do with. Then we'll be talking about the death of the news anchor instead of the newspaper. I'm not so sure about this. #justsayin
Vadim Lavrusik

These are all good things, but you're points see to lack one point: you have a lot of control over how you would use it. If you're in your pj's, just use the standard chat. Similarly to how I use the video chat feature on Facebook, sometimes it's appropriate and other times it simply doesn't make sense. Same thing with having news networks popup, you control who you accept as a friend, right? I think that it would be a great feature to have an OPTION to use during specific circumstances. Voice chat at this point seems ancient.
Craig Kanalley

Interesting, Vadim. It would be a great feature for sure and I hope Facebook is considering it too.

Communication-wise, video obviously has a different dynamic than text; it is so much more personal. And when you're able to chat with someone you know and like (unlike Chatroulette), it's often comforting to be able to see them, body language, and so forth.

I like the idea and with all of your friends embedded in one place, it would be such a cool integration. I feel if Facebook does it though, it should go all out --- allow for video chat with multiple friends simultaneously.
Vadim Lavrusik

Agreed. I think group video chat would be fantastic. They could also then move into allowing people to host video chat events. People are already using social to share their thoughts during Grammy's, etc.
jchewitt

I'd be exciting if they implement it. I'd instantly solve the "penis problem" by removing anonymity.

Still, FB has lost some of the identity verification strength that it had when it was founded. Perhaps as they work to transition it into a platform for commerce, that part may improve.

It's a private company - they may be working on surprises. I'm open to seeing what they might accomplish.

My question is, could they replicate the functionality of Skype? I'm unsure of the technical challenges that might be involved.
Craig Kanalley

So what are they waiting for? Imagine celebs using their Facebook fan pages to broadcast live on Facebook, etc. It would be a killer feature as you say.

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