Facebook today announced the launch of several new chat features that software engineer Philip Su says are indicative of the social platform's commitment to "make it easier to have one on one conversations with your friends." In the announcement, posted by Su on Facebook's blog, he identifies several improvements to Facebook's messaging feature that will have the folks working on Google+ coding faster than ever. Among the new messaging features Su highlights:

• a sidebar that allows users to see the friends they message most frequently.
• the ability to create a group chat quickly and easily.
• and, of course, video chat (made possible via Facebook's partnership with Skype.

While publications like PC World have offered up somewhat cool reviews of the new feature, claiming for example that the software installation is a bit more complicated than Facebook lets on, Neil Stevens, via the Skype blog, writes that the two companies have "collaborated to create a great user experience." For more information about the new video calling feature, check out the video tuturial on Facebook's website.

Joey Hall
EVG Content Marketing VP