The ongoing Coronavirus outbreak has lead people to use video calling services more extensively than before. Now, a report says that 70% more people are using group video calls and are spending more time than usual watching Facebook and Instagram Live amid the ongoing pandemic.
At the end of last week, 70% people participated in group video calls using Facebook Messenger week-over-week, and the amount time spent on those group video calls has doubled globally.
Similarly, voice and video calls on WhatsApp have more than doubled year-over-year in the places most impacted by the virus, CNET reported on Monday.
Separately, Facebook on Monday announced that it would help government health organizations and United Nations health agencies connect with its developer partners who will help them use its Facebook Messenger most effectively to scale their response to COVID-19.
“Our developer partners will provide their services for free, showing these critical organizations how to use Messenger to share timely information with local communities and speed up their replies to commonly asked questions with tools like automated responses,” Facebook said in a statement.
It also said it is starting an online hackathon and inviting developers to build messaging solutions that address issues related to the coronavirus such as social distancing and access to accurate information. Participants will receive unique access to Messenger tools and content as well as educational materials from Facebook to support their innovation. “The winners will get mentoring from Facebook engineers to help make their idea a reality,” the company added.