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Facebook highlights video chat with new 'call' button

The social network seems to be testing the new feature on profile pages to draw attention to its little used video feature.

Donna Tam Staff Writer / News
Donna Tam covers Amazon and other fun stuff for CNET News. She is a San Francisco native who enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail and reading her Kindle.
Donna Tam
Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET

Facebook is testing out a new "Call" button in profile pages to promote its video chat capabilities.

Despite launching the service in a partnership with Skype nearly a year ago, Facebook may feel the pressured to amp up its video chat's visibility with competition from services like Google+ Hangouts and the recently launched Airtime.

TechCrunch first noticed the little button showing up at the top of people's profiles.

It seems like the person needs to be online for the Call button to show up. A glance at my list of friends online seems to confirm that, but nothing official from Facebook yet.

Without the new button, the only way to know there is video chat is the tiny video icon at the top of chat windows.