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Staying connected with others can be a challenge, especially when you’re social distancing. Facebook is trying to address that issue with a new feature called Messenger Rooms.
About Messenger Rooms
Messenger Rooms is a free group video chat service that you can use to stay connected. If you have loved ones you want to stay in touch with, you can use Messenger Rooms to have a video chat with them even if they aren’t on Facebook, don’t have a smartphone, and/or don’t want to download software to their computer.
Messenger Rooms offers an alternative to Zoom and may help people avoid being Zoombombed or being cut off by time limits. Unlike Zoom, Messenger Rooms doesn’t require special software or an app to have a video chat.
Up to 50 people can join a Messenger Rooms video chat, with no time limit for the meeting. You can create public or private Rooms that you share on Messenger, and on Facebook in News Feed, Groups, and Events. You can also invite people to join public Rooms, even if they don’t have a Facebook account, by sharing a link with them.
This video from Facebook introduces Messenger Rooms:
Creating a Room
To create a Room, look for the option under the People section of your Messenger app or on Facebook.
If you don’t see the option to create a Room, then you don’t have access to the feature yet.
The person who creates a Room controls how public the Room is. The creator may make the Room public for anyone who wants to join, or limit it to specific friends or a Facebook Group. If the Room is set to public, then anyone can share a link with others to join the Room. A Room created for a Facebook Group is by default limited to members of the Group.
The creator of the Room can remove a person at any time and lock a Room so no one else can enter. If you’ve blocked someone on Facebook, that person’s Facebook account will also be blocked from any Rooms you create.
Joining a Room
To join a Room, look for a link in your Facebook News Feed, on a Group page, or in Messenger. You can use Rooms on your phone, tablet, or computer.
If the Room you’ve joined is public, you can share the link with others so they can join too. You can leave a Room at any time, even if it’s locked.
For more fun, add filters, mood lighting, and 3Dbackgrounds in Rooms using the Messenger app.
Availability
In the announcement of Messenger Rooms, Facebook said it’s rolling out the feature first in a limited number of countries, then “the rest of the world in coming weeks.” Facebook didn’t specify which countries would be getting Messenger Rooms first.
Messenger Rooms will first be available in Messenger on the app and on the Facebook website. Facebook plans to expand Messenger Rooms to WhatsApp, Instagram, and Portal in the future.
Privacy
On Facebook Rooms Privacy Page, Facebook says that it doesn’t listen to or watch what happens in Rooms. But it does collect data from users of Messenger Rooms, including from people who aren’t members of Facebook.
Facebook states: “As with other parts of Facebook, we collect data from Rooms regardless of whether you joined through one of our apps or without logging into an account. The main purpose of this data is to provide the service and improve the product experience. As with other Messenger features though, audio and video from Rooms won’t be used to inform ads. And, we don’t show ads in Rooms.”
Rooms are not end-to-end encrypted, though Facebook says it is working on that feature for the future.
Your Thoughts
Do you have access to Messenger Rooms yet? Are you interested to try Rooms and have free video chats with up to 50 people and without time limits? Do you think Messenger Rooms is a good alternative to Zoom and other video chat services?
Share your thoughts in the Comments Section below!
Hi Carolyn Nicander Mohr,
Great post indeed!
Its really great thing to connect more and more people around the world. I never tried this chat room before but I want to join this room to participate.
Of-course Its alternative of other chat room. I really appreciate your work.
Anyway thanks for sharing such unique thing with us.
Regards:
Rana Irfan.
Hi Rana, Yes, it’s great Facebook is offering a new video chat alternative that is free, available to anyone, doesn’t require a download, and has no time limits. I look forward to Messenger Rooms being available worldwide soon!
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for your this interesting information. I think this facebook rooms feature is very helpful to people and social media users.
Hi Sanjay, Yes, I like the fact that anyone can use it, even people who aren’t on Facebook. Very clever of Facebook to allow for non-members to use it, perhaps that will entice more people to join Facebook.
I did update the messenger upon your recommendation and the feature was available. This feature is very useful getting the group chat with friends in the lockdown and all thanks to you mate.
Hi Asad, That’s great that you have access to Messenger Rooms. I don’t have it yet, how do you like it?
It seems to be a helpful alternative to Zoom in that it’s free and has no time limit. I look forward to giving it a try when I get access to it.
I had a conference call for a few seconds with my friends on it but it kept on crashing the app. So as of now its pretty much messy though the quality of video and sound was much better then zoom. And yes I ll read your article the venture of FB & google relating COVID-19!
Hi Asad, That’s a shame that Rooms didn’t work well for you. That may be why Facebook wanted to roll out the feature slowly, to work out the bugs.
I hope you enjoy the article about Apple and Google’s contact tracing technology. Many countries seem to be adapting it around the world.
Btw Carolyn, i would like you to do a comparison between the Zoom, Facebook chatrooms and Google meet.
I would surely want to see who among these is the best according to you.
Hi Asad, Great idea for an article topic. I may tackle that, but in the meantime, here’s an article from Mashable on just that subject: Zoom vs. Google Meet vs. Facebook’s Messenger Rooms: Which is the right video chat app for you?
No time limit and up to 50 participants? Sounds like this requires quite a strong internet connection on all sides.
Hi Allon, Excellent point. Video chatting does require a strong Internet connection. I have received many questions from Wonder of Tech readers about boosting Wi-Fi strength in their homes to help with video calls.
Getting a Wi-Fi booster and extender may help strengthen the Wi-Fi signal throughout the house.
At this point, I would say that them and Google Meet have pretty much lost the video conference calling game to Zoom.
Hi Robin, You may be right, but it also may be too early to tell whether Messenger Rooms will be a true competitor to Zoom. After Rooms has been released everywhere we will have a better understanding of how successful it will be against Zoom.
Thanks for this information. Held a meeting with two of my clients in Colorado and we were using good old Messenger which could not run nicely on my client’s Mac. Rooms should give Zoom a run for their money as they have been limiting us to only 30 mins before resetting. Facebook has been incredibly adaptive over the years and this can explain their runaway success. Thanks.
Hi Ukweli, Yes, the time limit on free Zoom accounts (40 minutes I believe), can be disruptive. I hope that Rooms works well enough to be worthy competition in the group video chat market.
This is incredible feature to support online business and also its free of cost. Present, we use zoom app but this has some limitations like on number of users and the time.
I would like to know if this feature would still be usable if person has not downloaded the messenger.
Hi John, Yes, Messenger Rooms could be a helpful service for businesses as well as individuals. With up to 50 people being able to join Rooms and a lack of time limits, Rooms could give Zoom some serious competition.
Yes, Rooms is available via the Facebook website in addition to the Messenger app. You don’t need to have a Facebook account to join a Room video chat.
They’re basically ripping off Zoom. LOL
Hi Dex, If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Zoom should be very flattered. But Zoom was far from the first service to offer group video chats. I hope that competition helps make each service better.
Well, I guess they try to get the “opportunity”
You know, when some person/people/organization makes something “impressive” to the public. The others will follow. This happens in every of industries.
Just like Fortnite and PUBG, Netflix and Disney +, etc.
Btw, thanks for replying.
Hi Dex, Very true. Tech has a history of developers taking a concept and expanding on it. Sometimes that results in amazing innovation. Other times the results are flops. The only constant in tech is change.
Actually, there was room for ZOOM.us to create multiple video chat at once. That was not existing and Zoom hit that at a perfect time when lockdown was there in the world.
Google and Facebook were late.
Hi Yogesh, Competition tends to improve the market for consumers so Google and Facebook adding these video chat services may make video chats better for all of us.
Both Google and Facebook had their video chat/calling platform. Why didn’t they made it to multiple video chat? They had their chances.
BTW, there is something wrong with CommentLuv on your site. I am unable to do that perfectly.
Hi Yogesh, I’m thinking Facebook and Google wanted more publicity for their new chat services than adding a “multiple users” feature would have generated. But that’s just a guess. But you’re right, it can be confusing to have new platforms to learn.
Sorry you’re having problems with CommentLuv. What specifically is the problem? Are you having that problem with other sites?
CommentLuv us working fine now.
Thank you!
Hi Yogesh, Great news. Thanks for letting me know.