Facebook offers free VoIP service to UK's iOS Messenger users

Social network, Facebook has updated its iOS Messenger app to allow access to its free VoIP service for UK users.

Desktop-based Facebook users have for a while now been able to access the service on the house, but the arrival of free calling UK iPhones and iPads would mark the first time, the service would be on mobile devices outside of the US and Canada.

Users who want to make use of the new free calling feature, should access the Facebook Messenger app on their iOS gadget, then look for the little 'i' icon in the top right-hand corner. Tapping it brings up an option menu and they would see that the 'Free Call' option had been activated.

The service would only be compatible with one-to-one conversations and if the receiver were not be available for chat immediately, users would have the option of leaving a voicemail for them to pick up later - a relatively new feature added to Facebook Messenger in January.

Users would however, need to keep in mind that while there were no extra charges for VoIP calls over Facebook Messenger, they would need  to be connected to the internet via 4G, 3G or Wi-Fi. In other words, they would be using data during the chat so they needed to make sure to stay on top of their data allowance to avoid any unpleasant surprises at the end of the month.

Facebook Messenger can be downloaded for free via the iOS App Store and was also available for the Android and BlackBerry operating systems. However, users of those platforms would hardly be happy to learn that enjoy free VoIP calls for the time being were available to for iOS devices.

Android users would likely need to wait for the update though, but if the rollout in Canada was anything to go by, their wait would not be too long.

According to commentators, while Facebook had the most users for any social network it had fallen behind rival messaging services where VoIP was concerned. Services such as Skype and Line already offered free voice-calling in all the markets where their apps were available.

They point out that as the roll out of Messenger's VoIP feature continued it became increasingly obvious that there was a growing amount of overlap between social networking apps and free messaging ones.

Meanwhile, even as Facebook expanded its messaging options, messaging apps had also started to offer users the opportunity to share content and other popular social networking features such as newsfeeds.