Facebook Messenger now allows free calls for US, Canada iPhone users

Facebook 's new form of search is not the only new feature that the company is testing out. The social networking site has just added a new feature to its Messenger app for iOS which allows US and Canada users to make free voice calls using both Wi-Fi and their data connection.

The Verge which first reported this, states, that when someone calls you via the Facebook Messenger a push notification appears on the screen stating who is calling you.

Facebook also confirmed the same to Bloomberg. The report quotes a Facebook statement as saying, "We started testing this in Canada the first week of the year and today we're extending that test to the US. We were able to expand the test so quickly because it went well in Canada and we wanted to expand the audience."

More from News Analysis

[caption id="attachment_591475" align="alignleft" width="380"] Facebook's iPhone Messenger app. Screenshots from Facebook's App Store[/caption]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always indicated that mobile is a very important area for the company. At last year's TechCrunch Disrupt conference, he had said, "I think it is really easy to for folks to underestimate how really fundamentally good mobile is for us." He also admitted that it was his mistake to rely on HTML 5 for Facebook's mobile apps.

Ahead of Facebook's recent event, the one big question on every one's mind was whether Facebook would finally launch a smartphone with its own. But Zuckerberg has always said that a smartphone is the wrong strategy for the company and that 'it doesn't move the needle for us.'

Facebook's Messenger App is one of the most popular apps on both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store. Recently Facebook allowed Android users in India to log into the Messenger app with just their mobile number and name, even if they didn't have a Facebook account.