For those unaware, last month, Facebook had unveiled its “Messenger Rooms” feature for a small subset of people to compete against Zoom, another video chat product that has surged in popularity due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown. Messenger Rooms app allows users to host video calls of up to 50 people with no time limit from Messenger or directly from Facebook via News Feed, Groups, and Events. Zuckerberg also confirmed the Rooms integration for WhatsApp as well as Instagram. “With so many people at home around the world, we’re all relying on video chat to feel present with the people we care about. WhatsApp and Messenger are already the most popular video calling services globally, but for large groups, most of the video services out there are designed for work, not social interactions. Messenger Rooms is a group video chat designed for social interactions. Rooms have no time limits, can host up to 50 people, and you can create them for free across Messenger, Facebook, and soon Instagram and WhatsApp as well,” Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Thursday. Rooms can be created right from Messenger or Facebook. It also gives users the ability to share links to invite anyone to join, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. Also, users can make Messenger Rooms private and restrict it only to their friends. “You can start and share rooms on Facebook through News Feed, Groups, and Events, so it’s easy for you to drop by whenever you want,” wrote Stan Chudnovsky, Facebook’s vice president of Messenger, in a blog post. “You can choose who can see and join your room or remove people from your room and lock the room if you don’t want anyone else to join.”
To get the new Messenger Rooms feature, you need to download the latest version of the Facebook and Messenger mobile app from the Apple Store or Google Play Store and the Messenger Desktop app from the Microsoft Store or Mac App Store. Messenger Rooms is now available to everyone in the US, Canada and Mexico, and will be available to everyone globally in the next week!With so many people at home around the world, we’re all relying on video chat to feel present with the people we care about. WhatsApp and Messenger are already the most popular video calling services globally, but for large groups most of the video services out there are designed for work, not social interactions. Messenger Rooms is group video chat designed for social interactions. Rooms have no time limits, can host up to 50 people, and you can create them for free across Messenger, Facebook, and soon Instagram and WhatsApp as well. You can create a private room and invite a few friends with a link, or you can create a room for one of your groups, or for an event you’re planning. You can also start a room for all your friends at the top of your News Feed and just see who stops by to say hi. You don’t need to schedule time to hang out like other video conferencing tools — it’s much more serendipitous and fun. I’ve really enjoyed using it as we’ve been building it. I’ve gotten to catch up with a lot of people I miss seeing around but wouldn’t have necessarily called on my own. Try it out and I’m interested to see what you think! Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, 14 May 2020 Currently, Messenger Rooms is rolling out to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and will be available to everyone globally starting next week. “We will continue to add more features to Messenger Rooms in the coming months,” Chudnovsky added. “We hope Messenger Rooms will enable people everywhere to stay more connected with the people they love, no matter where they might be.”
