Facebook’s internal R&D group, NPE Team, has recently launched a new audio calling app called CatchUp. The company is currently testing CatchUp in the USA for some time on both Android and iOS platforms.
The new Facebook CatchUp app helps you to reach your friends, family, or relatives through a phone call, which can be extended to a group call, which can comprise up to 8 people. Although the app is specifically built only for Audio calls (i.e. no video calls), it’s not the only feature that the app bequeaths. As the app allows you to see if any person is available to talk just by looking at their status on the app.
More about Facebook CatchUp app
This feature is somewhat like the Houseparty app because this app also allows you to have details about who’s live at the moment by sending notifications when your friend opens the app.
The moment your friends, relatives, or family members open the app, it shows that specific user’s status as ‘Ready to Talk’ which is on the top section of the home screen and the moment he/she becomes offline the contacts status changes immediately.
Facebook says- ‘the main reason why people nowadays avoid making phone calls is that they don’t know if the person they are calling is free to talk or not. So, to not interrupt him/her when he/she might be engrossed in some other work, people usually avoid making phone calls.’ This is the sole reason why people nowadays prefer text messaging over phone calls.
Even though video calls are becoming very popular these days still phone calls are more convenient. As users can receive calls anytime, but can’t say the same for video calls as it asks you to be at least video ready.
Understanding all these needs, Facebook decided to launch this app, which could cater to all of the above-mentioned problems giving users an amazing calling experience.
They have kept the interface of the app like that of a normal phone calling. You can make and join a group call as you do on any other chatting apps. The process is not at all complex, it just requires a one-button tap for you to place a call. The users don’t require an existing Facebook account or an account with any Facebook-owned companies to have access to this app. The reason to keep the interface of this app so easy was to make it easy for the older users to have a better understanding and usage out of this app.
The idea for this app came even before the pandemic, but the process of development got into pace because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Let’s see how the public responds to this app even after having plenty of apps that comes with voice calling features, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger itself.
