Facebook is testing out its own Phone app

By David Nield Published March 21, 2015

fatal shooting facebook live app — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Facebook hasn’t been shy of releasing spin-off apps of late — consider Home, Rooms, Groups, Slingshot and of course Messenger — and it looks like there’s another one in the pipeline too. A couple of Facebook users on Android have noticed links to what seems to be a Facebook dialler app called, appropriately, Phone.

Android Police has the lowdown on the screenshots and what they could mean for Facebook’s future app plans. According to the grabs, “Phone is a new app that shows you info about who’s calling and automatically blocks calls from commonly blocked numbers.” That info would naturally include data pulled from Facebook’s vast network of people and businesses.

As Facebook Home proves, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has no qualms about taking over your smartphone, and a Phone app could presumably be used as a replacement for the default one (on Android at least). We’ve heard countless rumors of a dedicated Facebook phone down the years but perhaps the social giant just wants to dominate the smartphone you already have.

Tapping on the Facebook Phone link led users to a blank page, so presumably this is just something that’s being tested internally for now. With no official confirmation from Facebook and nothing else to go on, there’s not much else we know about this upcoming app — Facebook might even have a change of heart and decide not to release it after all.

Facebook Messenger already includes calling capabilities and the feature is about to be introduced to the Facebook-owned WhatsApp too. A dedicated Phone tool would take the functionality outside the main Facebook app, a strategy the social network seems increasingly keen on pursuing.

[Header image: JuliusKielaitis / Shutterstock.com]

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Dave is a freelance journalist from Manchester in the north-west of England. He's been writing about technology since the…

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