Facebook Resurrects Phone Calls in New 'CatchUp' App as Voice Calls Increase Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

While people mostly use social media messaging apps, Facebook announced on Tuesday, May 26, that its New Product Experimentation (NPE) Team has launched an app that allows users to see who is available on voice chat.

According to a Mashable report, CatchUp is like a Houseparty for phone calls. It'ss free to download and lets users begin phone calls with a participant or a group within the app.

Facebook's CatchUp is a separate app that doesn't require users to have an account with Facebook or other Facebook-owned company. It works by accessing the user's phone contacts where the user builds a friend list. It allows all non-Facebook friends, relatives, friends, and even random people to call the user easily, provided they have also downloaded the app.

Facebook reinvents phone calls in a new app 'CatchUp' as people prefer voice calls 

According to The New York Times, during the coronavirus pandemic, phone calls have increased more than internet use. However, Facebook says the NPE Team is people's hesitation to place a call because they might reach someone at a bad time. With CatchUp's "Ready to Talk" feature, people and groups who are using the app are displayed.

While it is still too early to see whether CatchUp takes off or not, it's part of Facebook's experimental program and its future is still unclear. However, Facebook's integration of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in the past could lead people into thinking that it will stay as a stand-alone app.

It seems the pandemic has resurrected the phone call service. As telecommunication giants are preparing for society's shift toward more internet-based households, they did not expect a greater surge in voice calls which, for a long time, was regarded as outdated.

In a statement, Verizon said it is now receiving about 800 million wireless calls a day, which is more than twice during Mother's Day--one of the busiest call days of the year. The statement also said that voice calls are lower by 33% from an average day before the outbreak.

Similarly, AT&T's mobile calls rose by 35% while its Wi-Fi-based calls nearly doubled compared to the pre-pandemic average.

Bringing voice calls into the 21st century

In recent years, Verizon, CenturyLink, and AT&T have retired their copper wire phone lines that were introduced 150 years ago since phone calls now use airwaves connected through cell towers.

"Voice is the new killer app," said Chris Sambar, AT&T's executive vice president of technology and operations, adding voice calls are used for both business and personal purposes.

With the surge in voice calls, telecom providers have made upgrades with their calling connection points to handle the new demand as the "texting generation" of young adults are now also using voice calls.

This surprising trend is making these companies rethink their investment efforts, having widely invested in broadband networks, and expanded capacity for higher-resolution video and video gaming, as well as ultra-fast wireless 5G technology.

If this is the case, then Facebook's CatchUp arrived just at the right time to cater to the increasing phone call demand.

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