Facebook is teaming up with Skype to deliver SMS and voice/video chat using Facebook Connect, according to a report by All Things Digital. The supposed announcement will reveal a major partnership between Facebook and Skype to deeply integrate the two services. Skype adding Facebook Connect will mean users being able to quickly call their Facebook contacts and initiate Facebook video chats from within Skype.
Facebook, which has a population of some 500 million, is interested in giving users stronger communication tools in order to tighten up its community: even more users using the social network even more often. Skype, which already has 124 million people using it monthly and 560 million registered users, is also interested in getting a usage boost.
Skype 5, the first version with an added Facebook tab, is set to arrive in a few weeks. The new version is currently in beta testing right now, but Facebook integration has yet to make an appearance. It would be equally interesting if Skype calling and texting could be built into Facebook, as an optional feature of course, but nothing like that has been disclosed.