Facebook launches messenger rooms for unlimited video calls

Facebook has unveiled its technology skill sets to the sudden growth of Zoom over the past few weeks of the lockdowns happening across worldwide.

Many countries have enforced stay-at-home policies to try to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, many companies have posted impressive metrics that highlight the explosive growth of communication services over the last few weeks. Zoom Video revealed that its maximum number of daily meeting participants surged from 10 million to 300 million in March.

Facebook reported the number of people using their desktop browser for audio and video calling on Messenger has more than doubled last month. This number pales in comparison to Zoom's stellar user growth, but Facebook is trying to fill the gap. The social media giant announced today in a blog post a new Messenger app for MacOS and Windows that includes unlimited and free group video calls. Also, chats will synchronize across the mobile, desktop, and app versions of Messenger.

Facebook Messenger already had video chat functionality, but it was limited both in the total number of people allowed to participate, and also in its requirement that all of them have a Facebook account.

Facebook has launched a new platform, Messenger Rooms. Messenger Rooms lets users create group video calls with up to 50 participants and the messenger Rooms will compete directly with apps such as Zoom and Houseparty with active conferences being shown on a user' feed, and unlocked ones bringing in the ability of simply being joined in by the user at a touch of a button.

The feature was announced by Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg who that users will be able to select who is allowed to discover and join their room or make it only accessible to those with a link. With the new Messenger Rooms can host video chats of up to 50 people, and those who don’t have a Facebook account can still join – they’ll receive a link to the Room you have created. With one click they can then join the conversation – just like with Zoom. Importantly, Messenger Rooms has no time limit whatsoever

If you join a Room through the Messenger app, then you can play with AR effects and new features like immersive backgrounds and mood lighting. The creator of a Room chooses who can see and join it, and can remove anyone from the call at any time, as well as lock the Room if they don’t want anyone else to enter. And you can of course leave a Room whenever you want. Rooms you create through a Facebook Group are open by default to members of that Group.

While Messenger Rooms will be limited to Facebook for now, in the future it will be integrated with Instagram Direct, WhatsApp, and Portal, according to Facebook VP of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky.