Video Calling on Facebook Messenger Is Getting an Update
Messenger (i.e. Facebook Messenger) is getting some new features. Meta announced a number of changes to the app in a blog post on Wednesday , all related to video and audio calling. Three of these features seem great, one seems good, and one seems useless.
Here’s what you might see the next time you refresh Messenger and make a video or audio call.
Video calls will now be in HD (sometimes)
The best change is quite simple: Meta now offers HD video calling, which is a no-brainer in 2024. Considering that all of our devices now come with high-quality cameras, it’s quite surprising that it took Meta so long to get this done. improve the quality of video calls in Messenger. However, video calls should look clearer in the future.
However, while HD calling is enabled when you’re communicating over Wi-Fi, it’s disabled by default for cellular calls – likely in an attempt to avoid user complaints about high data usage. However, if you have an unlimited data plan or just like to overspend, you can change this in your call settings: During a video call, tap the three dots in the top right corner, select Call Settings , then turn on Mobile Data. for HD video .
Noise reduction and voice isolation will improve the sound quality.
Noise cancellation and voice isolation options for video calls are also useful. Meta doesn’t go into detail about these features, but they have become pretty much standard across other video calling platforms. Noise cancellation eliminates background noise during calls, and voice isolation puts the emphasis on your speech rather than other sounds happening around you.
Meta appears to be using iOS’s built-in voice isolation feature , at least based on what is stated in the blog post. It’s unclear whether this feature works on Android, although Meta doesn’t indicate that it’s platform-specific.
Meta says you can also enable these options in the call settings during a video call.
Siri integration with Messenger (finally)
If Messenger is your favorite messaging app, the lack of Siri support has probably been a little frustrating for a while now. Siri will happily create a text for you in Apple’s Messages app or make a FaceTime call on your behalf, but if you want to send a message or call someone on the Meta platform, all Siri can do is open the app for you.
That’s changing: Siri is now integrated with Messenger, so you can ask the assistant to text or call someone in Messenger, just like you can with Messages. You just have to remember to specify this when talking to Siri: if you don’t specify an app name, the call or text message will be sent through Apple Messages anyway.
Now you can leave audio and video messages
If someone doesn’t answer your audio or video call, Messenger now lets you record an audio or video message for them explaining why you called in the first place. (Yes, Meta recreated the answering machine.)
This is a nice addition in theory, but to be honest, I’ve never found this feature to make much sense. Apple added a similar feature to FaceTime in iOS 17 , and I’ve probably only used it once since then. In most cases, it makes sense to simply send a quick message to the recipient or wait for them to call back. But hey, if you like leaving voice messages, you might like this new feature.
You can use (sigh) AI to create backgrounds for video calls.
I suppose I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Meta’s new AI backgrounds for video calls, even though I’ll never use them myself. You can tap the effects icon and select “Backgrounds” to request any background image you want Meta AI to create. This is the art of artificial intelligence , but for the background of your video call. What more can be said?