Facebook’s Hello App Provides Local Search And Phone Call Features

Facebook has announced its testing of a new app called Hello, which is a dialer/caller ID product that also offers a local business search feature. Many people in the digital marketing industry feel that local search remains a largely untapped resource on Facebook, and this new app signifies a small move in the direction of realizing its potential.

The social media giant has reported that it sees more than 1 billion mobile searches per day, which clearly illustrates the user demand for Facebook in search. With the Hello app, users are able to search for specific businesses by name. Additionally, they can do category searches such as “car dealerships” or “sports bars.” Once a business has been located, a user can call its phone number, add it to their contacts, or get directions using Google Maps, all without leaving the app. Users can also choose to click through to the company’s Facebook Page to see friends’ comments as well as user reviews and ratings.

In addition to its local search functionality, Hello allows users to block phone numbers and to see who is calling them, even if they don’t have that phone number saved in their phone. With this app, Facebook is utilizing its database of caller ID information. However, only information that comes either from a user’s friends or information that is shared publicly will be displayed. When a user chooses to block a number, the call will go straight to voicemail, but will still show up in the call log.

“Billions of calls are made everyday on mobile phones and people often have very little information about who’s calling them,” wrote Facebook in its blog post. “Today we are starting to test Hello, a new app built by the Messenger team. Hello connects with Facebook so you can see who’s calling, block unwanted calls and search for people and places.”

Facebook’s new app could prove to be particularly useful for people who often change phones or have more than one phone for different purposes, as their family and friends will still know who they are when they call from any of their phones.

Regarding the local search aspect of this new offering, it may be seen as surprising that Facebook has not yet created a separate app devoted entirely to this purpose. Considering the massive user demand for search on Facebook, perhaps the social media giant is working on a product that will provide more robust local search capabilities, although this is merely speculation at this point.

Currently, the Hello app is available for Android only, and the test version can be downloaded in the Play Store.