Voice Chat Coming to Facebook in the Next Few Weeks

Facebook's size means that it can experiment with a wide range of features or new products, which have immediate exposure to millions of users. While some may argue that perhaps the social network is moving away too far from its core service, it doesn't seem to have damaged it or even slowed it down in any way. And, now, it's getting ready to enter a new market by offering voice chat for every user with the help of VoIP provider Vivox, as part of its new Labs unit.

“This new initiative [Vivox Labs] enables us to work on new ideas, experiment with Web Voice and leverage what we learn for the benefit of our users and partners,” Monty Sharma, Vivox co-founder, said. “The first two projects coming out of Vivox Labs are extraordinary examples of the passion and talent of our team and the adaptability of Web Voice. While we are excited about the potential of these early efforts, we know our partners will take these tools and further innovate them as gaming and the social web merge.”

Once it will become available, the service will allow users to have quality audio conversations with anyone in their friends list and even host group chats. There is one drawback, as users will have to first install a plugin to enable the voice-chat functionality, but once they get it going, the service will be pretty tightly integrated into Facebook.

Another interesting aspect is the fact that, besides the core application, Vivox will also allow other third-party developers to incorporate the technology into their applications, enabling players to chat while they play a game on the social network or other interesting possibilities.

The product does have some appealing features, but it may drive off some users discouraged by the need for a separate plugin. The service also doesn't have any sort of support from Facebook itself. But Vivox has a great experience with voice chat, having some 15 million gamers use the technology in some form or another and the service will also offer some advanced features like a call-in number for outside users.