Facebook Announces Instant Video In Its Messenger App To Take On The Likes Of Google Duo and Snapchat.

Facebook announced Instant Video in its Messenger app to take on the likes of Google Duo and Snapchat. In a post earlier today, the social media giant said …”with Instant Video, you can bring your conversations to life in the most authentic way — seamlessly and instantly. It’s perfect for sharing quick moments with friends who aren’t right by your side or making your conversations richer by seeing each other face-to-face when you are messaging.”

How it works

Just before I tell you how it works, you should know that you need to update your Messenger app to the latest version and if you do, your friend must have updated theirs too. To begin using the service, you would need to initiate a conversation and you’ll see the option in the far top right corner on your screen. See image below;

Tapping on it will instantly share your video stream with your chat partner without them having to accept it. So like Duo, the other person just needs to be in phone contact plus the app and that’s it. This video continues without a sound initially and you can turn on the sound should you choose. Like Skype, you can keep text chatting while the video is live.

The green button in the video allows your Instant Video to enter full screen mode.

Source: Buzzfeed

That’s it about this service and this is just the latest of features to come to the 1 billion user Facebook Messenger app. This comes as Facebook introduced chatbots to the app to make it more attractive to businesses in April.