Messenger Rooms allows up to 50 users to start a video hangout with no time limit. And you don’t even need a Facebook account to join.
Facebook is taking on Zoom. After seeing the success – and failures – of Zoom which quickly became the video-conferencing platform of choice during the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook’s reaction is everything we could have expected.
Messenger Rooms is a new video-calling feature that allows up to 50 users to start a virtual hangout. It’s free for all, and there’s no time limit to calls. What’s even better, is that you don’t even need a Facebook account to use it.
You can invite anyone to join: from WhatsApp, from Instagram, from Facebook, and even from an ordinary shareable link. Rooms can stay open to specific groups or friend circles, allowing for users to drop in and out whenever they want.
Mark Zuckerberg said a new feature will also display all active Messenger Rooms a the top of your Facebook feed.
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Facebook built Messenger Rooms with privacy and security at its core:
“We built Rooms with privacy in mind and designed controls to let you manage your experience,” explains Erin Egan, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer “The default privacy settings were designed to be consistent with what you’d expect for where you create a room. For example, rooms you create through a Facebook Group are open by default to members of that Group.”
Messenger Rooms is part of a series of new video-related features Facebook announced last week:
https://www.facebook.com/WeAreSocialMedia/videos/3702921749780185/