Facebook Video Calling and Opera

July 8, 2011 · by Patrick H. Lauke

This week, Facebook unveiled its new Video Calling feature. Unfortunately, Opera is currently not supported.

The reason for Facebook's block seems to be a problem with our version of Opera on OS X. Facebook's plug-in installs itself as FacebookVideoCalling.webplugin on Mac, but our browser only recognises plug-ins with a .plugin extension. This causes their plug-in detection scripts to think the installation failed, triggering a renewed installation process.

Our fearless engineers are working to fix this issue in Opera code as soon as possible, and we're also in talks with Facebook to find a quick resolution to the problem.

Readers' comments 50

Left under the original article, as archived; 1 page of comments could not be recovered.

Mağruf ÇolakoğluFriday, July 8, 2011 2:54:12 PM
good news.thanks
Unregistered userFriday, July 8, 2011 3:11:20 PM
Steve writes: Thanks for actually admitting responsibility and not just laying blame on Facebook :) You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.
Ronit KumarFriday, July 8, 2011 5:23:13 PM
Originally posted by anonymous:

Steve writes:

Thanks for actually admitting responsibility and not just laying blame on Facebook You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.

+1
Patrick H. LaukeFriday, July 8, 2011 5:41:18 PM
Steve of course, we try to be as transparent as possible
mubaidrFriday, July 8, 2011 7:03:47 PM
Ohh please also add support for google+, google video chat or google audio chat does not work
Unregistered userFriday, July 8, 2011 11:00:51 PM
Gianluca writes: Thank You guys. Do you have a twitter account to follow this issue..?thanks.
Andylee SatoSaturday, July 9, 2011 8:06:40 AM
@Gianluca: Their account is "ODevRel"
HaloTechnologySaturday, July 9, 2011 10:39:08 AM
Opera FTW
StarnourSaturday, July 9, 2011 2:12:41 PM
ThnX alot
PLZ ... can U makr it more faster ?
BlueFalconSunday, July 10, 2011 12:41:29 AM
Now I understand the problem, thanks for explaining it. I'll be waiting for the fix
Unregistered userSunday, July 10, 2011 9:18:04 AM
Jojo writes: Opera is the best browser for me. It has the simplest interface ever. Thanks. :)
Joel SpadinSunday, July 10, 2011 10:19:05 PM
It seems odd that they would block Opera on all platforms for a bug that only affects OS X, especially when you can easily determine the user's OS from the UA string. Video chat works perfectly here if I mask as Firefox.
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 8:09:21 AM
Anonymný writes: also the chat is not working correctly on opera, some of the messages are not sending
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 8:15:54 AM
Anonymous writes: I vote Opera #1 for Windows OS! And of course Mozilla Firefox goes 2nd and then Google Chrome 3rd. But Opera is still better. Keep it up.
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 8:16:00 AM
Mladen writes: Why doesn't it work in Windows too? Also, there's a problem with the notifications in Google+ as in 'they're not displayed at all.' Is that Google's fault for their browser sniffing, or some bug in Opera?
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 8:18:23 AM
Anonymous writes: I've had problems with video chat, on all browsers though. Google+ video chat works fine for me in Opera :D
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 8:18:39 AM
Nothing writes: Finally, Just make it fast. Cause i'm currently using Firefox5 :)
sebastienMonday, July 11, 2011 8:19:45 AM
and for the support of facebook games ? (cityville)
Kamlesh MalasiMonday, July 11, 2011 8:24:32 AM
Good news
mjmartinoMonday, July 11, 2011 8:38:21 AM
Mask as Firefox working propertly ;)

Po ustawienia na FB maskuj jako FF rozmowy działają bez problemu ;)
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 9:08:39 AM
Ziyaretçi writes: Thank you very much. When we see Opera Hardware Accelerated Browser
Nathan ChanMonday, July 11, 2011 9:54:30 AM
I got it working by changing the browser identification to "mask as firefox".
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 9:58:45 AM
Anonymous writes: i like so much all the opera program
Martin RauscherMonday, July 11, 2011 10:37:36 AM
And again OS X ruined something for WIndows users...
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 10:49:29 AM
nitin shrma writes: i m so exitment becos face book stared thn video caling i m so thnx ful to face book team .
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 1:07:21 PM
gorankx writes: It works nice on opera 11.50 masked as FF
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 1:08:45 PM
Anonymous writes: Thanks for actually admitting responsibility and not just laying blame on Facebook :) You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.
GyéBenMonday, July 11, 2011 1:50:53 PM
I use Google+ closed beta. Way better
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 1:58:57 PM
krishna writes: hi i am krishna. An new jointed here.
mjmartinoMonday, July 11, 2011 2:30:59 PM
@GyéBen google+ is not closed because you can sent invite to yours friends :p
G+ is clone FB .. anyway and ugly design ];->
PhriendMonday, July 11, 2011 3:49:19 PM
Originally posted by anonymous:

Steve writes:

Thanks for actually admitting responsibility and not just laying blame on Facebook You guys are awesome. Keep up the good work.
+1
GouravMonday, July 11, 2011 4:57:07 PM
I love Opera's dedication to serving it's users. Keep it up.
And video calling or not, I'll still use Opera
silviu052Monday, July 11, 2011 5:07:29 PM
while you're at it could you tell those cretins at yahoo that opera is compatible with their piece of shit webmail interface, the new one
Unregistered userMonday, July 11, 2011 6:34:50 PM
aashmit patel writes: its a magick yar
Chris-Nwaije OkemsinachiMonday, July 11, 2011 7:36:01 PM
i love opera...works well 4 me, i trust u guys can find a solution
Unregistered userTuesday, July 12, 2011 3:05:06 AM
Satyam writes: Hi opera
Unregistered userTuesday, July 12, 2011 5:14:02 AM
Ishq40 writes: I'm so happy to see Opera on FB!!!
Unregistered userTuesday, July 12, 2011 3:28:43 PM
Anonymous writes: "Patrick H. Lauke(patrickhlauke) # 8. July 2011, 17:41 Steve of course, we try to be as transparent as possible" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey, nice coincidence! Only you and Firefox have the same exact problem... Firefox is open source but, O.K.! You are transparent as possible.
Cutting SpoonWednesday, July 13, 2011 12:52:14 AM
Another .stupidmadeupname problem huh.
Unregistered userWednesday, July 13, 2011 6:52:56 PM
shaheen writes: thanks for develop the system of vedio calling.
Unregistered userThursday, July 14, 2011 7:17:49 AM
Anonymous writes: it's on windows 7 sp1 too not just on os x :p
Patrick H. LaukeThursday, July 14, 2011 8:43:27 AM
Originally posted by anonymous:

it's on windows 7 sp1 too not just on os x

Opera is blocked on both OS X and Windows, yes, but the cause of the block is only present on OS X. Facebook obviously found it easier to block by user agent, rather than being more granular and only blocking our OS X version.
Unregistered userMonday, July 18, 2011 10:07:45 AM
Promise writes: Thanks to opera
Joel SpadinMonday, July 18, 2011 6:50:37 PM
Originally posted by patrickhlauke:

Facebook obviously found it easier to block by user agent, rather than being more granular and only blocking our OS X version.

But the OS is given as part of the user agent, for example my UA string is "Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; U; Edition United States Local; en) Presto/2.9.168 Version/11.50". That just seems lazy to me.
peter matthewWednesday, July 20, 2011 7:38:31 AM
hi nice meeting you#
XP1Sunday, July 24, 2011 10:07:27 AM
Originally posted by anonymous:

Mladen writes:

Also, there's a problem with the notifications in Google+ as in 'they're not displayed at all.' Is that Google's fault for their browser sniffing, or some bug in Opera?
Yes, Google uses unnecessary, server-side browser sniffing to send Opera a crippled webpage, missing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, which, in effect, do not include web toolbar buttons and advanced feedback features.

That is why I created a User JS and extension for Google+ that will inject the missing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript so that the web toolbar notification and share buttons will work correctly.

I posted about it here in the My Opera forums:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=9922772
Unregistered userFriday, July 29, 2011 6:32:45 AM
lukmand namii writes: Laparrrrr
Swapnil RustagiSaturday, July 30, 2011 9:23:59 AM
Originally posted by spadija:

Originally posted by patrickhlauke:
Facebook obviously found it easier to block by user agent, rather than being more granular and only blocking our OS X version.
But the OS is given as part of the user agent, for example my UA string is "Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; U; Edition United States Local; en) Presto/2.9.168 Version/11.50". That just seems lazy to me.

It's given. But it's harder to sniff a specific part of UA rather than the full UA. So Facebook also found it easier as Patrick stated.
Joel SpadinSaturday, July 30, 2011 10:09:14 AM
Actually, they're already using only part of the UA string, (the "Opera" part) as sniffing based on the whole string would'nt get you much. That string will be different if you have a different version of Opera, are using a different OS, or are using a different language, so checking for one particular string won't work.

Personally, I think it's lazy not to check for both "Opera" and "Mac" (or whatever string denotes OS X).
ChirpieTuesday, August 9, 2011 8:21:26 PM
Originally posted by anonymous:

Thanks for actually admitting responsibility and not just laying blame on Facebook
Actually, it IS Facebook's fault. Facebook is blocking Opera, but it works fine on Windows if you spoof as Firefox.