We have some exciting new updates to Hello, our communications feature in Firefox, and we could use your help testing them because we value your feedback. Hello focuses on making it easier to communicate with your friends and family who might not have the same video chat service, software or hardware as you.
Together with our long-term partner Telefónica, and leveraging TokBox technology, we’re looking to make it easier to communicate over the Web by providing people with the first global communications system built directly into a browser. Firefox Hello is free to use, allows you to connect with anyone who has a WebRTC-enabled browser such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera and doesn’t require you to sign up for an account.
Since we introduced Hello, we’ve been listening closely to user feedback and acting on it. We’ve heard from people who love not having to sign up for an account or download a plugin in order to use Hello. We’ve also heard that the call initiation process and call management could be simpler. As a result, in Firefox Beta we’ve made important changes to the account-less call mode that simplifies the call process by eliminating some steps. Now when you start a conversation a window opens showing a self-view until the person you have invited clicks on the link and joins you. When the person you have called joins the conversation, you’ll be notified with an audio alert and the Hello icon will turn blue.
Each conversation window has a shareable, unique URL for two people to communicate more easily over video or audio. You can create multiple conversations and name them for different topics, making it easier to go back to the people you speak to regularly without having to create a new link each time. For example, you might set one conversation up for your weekly catch up with your family and a different one for a daily meeting with your co-worker. And the best part is that you still don’t need to set up an account to benefit from this feature. Your saved conversations will always be there when you need them.
New conversation window in Firefox Hello
For those of you who still love direct calling – don’t worry, we’re not taking this away. You will still be able to call people directly if both parties have Firefox Accounts.
So why not start a conversation and at the end of your call let us know what you think. Your feedback will help us find and fix bugs and enable us to get ready to share rooms with more Firefox users. Here are the instructions on how to create a conversation using Hello.
More information:
- Download Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux
- Release Notes for Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux
- Release Notes for Firefox for Android Beta