Skype is deepening its integration with Facebook today with the announcement that users can now make Facebook-to-Facebook calls within the Skype desktop client.
Facebook launched video calling powered by Skype back in July, but that was only from within Facebook. In other words, you had to be logged in to the social network to access your friend lists and place a video call.
With today’s announcement of Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows you can conduct those video calls directly from the app, regardless of whether you’re logged in to the social network.
Here’s what the popular VoIP calling service said in the announcement:
“This new development in the Skype-Facebook partnership is the latest example of how Skype is removing communication barriers and making it easier to connect with friends, family and business colleagues. Our approach to social is about personal connections with people. We are on a mission to connect over one billion people and our continued partnership with Facebook brings us one step closer to this goal.”
To use the new service, simply download Skype ( here for Mac or here for Windows ) and then connect with Facebook. Then select a Facebook friend and hit the video call button in Skype and your friend will be able to pick up the call either on Facebook or Skype.
In a previous roll out, Skype baked many of Facebook’s other features into the application . You could already see when your Facebook friends were logged in, read their comments and status updates, and IM them. This new iteration merely completes the next phase of the companies’ partnership.
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