Jajah launches Facebook voice call app for Blackberry

IP telephony outfit Jajah, which was bought by Spain’s Telefonica earlier this year, has released what it claims is “the first true calling solution for Facebook”. The service, dubbed Social Call, which launched Tuesday as a beta trial for Blackberry devices, lets users establish single click calls to any Facebook friend who is online, the firm said.

The user selects the friend they wish to call, causing the application to send a message to the friend over the Facebook Chat channel. When the friend clicks on that message, the call is established. Jajah, which is based in Mountain View, California, said the service will incur no extra charges.

The firm’s CEO, Trevor Healy, said that the creation of a service that allows voice calls over Facebook was the “holy grail” for communications companies.

“Facebook calling has been the holy grail for telecommunications companies all over the world who are trying to come to terms with the rise of social networking,” Healy said. “We have seen numerous announcements from many companies, but Jahah is the first to bring a genuine calling service to Facebook,” he claimed.

Last week Jajah announced that it had been selcted to power IP voice calling on Yahoo’s newly released Messenger iPhone App. The app allows iPhone users to make free VoIP calls on Yahoo Messenger as well as low cost calls to external networks.