Yesterday, Facebook introduced Video Calling in its Messenger app.
It is expected to go head on in the competition with other video calling services, especially Skype and Google Hangouts,
But did you know that Skype had already removed Facebook integration from its app? I came across a report which said Skype dropped Facebook Integration( well, its actually Facebook which has killed third party integration.)
Skype had announced recently, that users will not be able to use its app to send Facebook messages, view their Facebook Newsfeed, or update your Facebook Status from Skype Home.
We decided to dig through and found some interesting information. Skype didn’t remove Facebook integration, because it knew Video Calls were coming to Messenger, nobody saw that coming. The reason is because of some changes made to the Facebook’s API.
An API (Application Program Interface) consists of rules, guidelines and tools for a web-service, which are used for integrating the service in a third-party app. For instance: Facebook is the service here, whose API is used by Skype.
The Facebook API v1.0, expires on April 30th 2015, and it brings an end to its chat API.
The Chat/XMPP service and API, located at chat.facebook.com, will not be available once 1.0 is deprecated.
So third party apps will not be able to use Facebook chat once API v1.0 is retired. Even the Facebook app itself doesn’t have access to chat anymore, it is now exclusive to Messenger.
The reason why this is important is because there are more people who use Facebook, than there are people who use Skype. Facebook revealed yesterday that ” 600 million people use Messenger every month”.
And since Skype will no longer have access to some of Facebook’s core features, users who used Skype to access Facebook, will probably move over to Messenger for Video Calls and Chats with their Facebook friends.
This could be a shot in the arm for Messenger, which could end up taking a huge bite from Skype’s plate.
