Facebook takes on Zoom with the new Messenger Room feature

Outside of China, WhatsApp and Messenger are the most popular consumer communication platforms. Recently, due to the coronavirus situation around the world, Zoom has become a popular tool among millions of consumers. Recently, Zoom reported that it has 300 million daily active participants. Zoom became popular because of its simplicity and pricing. Through their basic free plan, Zoom allowed anyone to host a group video call with support for over 100 participants. Recently, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet announced several new features to take on Zoom in the video calling space.

Today, ALumia revealed that Facebook is working on a new feature called Messenger Rooms to take on Zoom. Facebook Messenger app already supports group video calls, but to make a group video call, you need to be friends with all the participants. The upcoming Messenger Rooms feature will allow anyone with a link to participant in the group video call. The participants can join the meeting without a Facebook account as well. When they click the link, they can join the call as a guest through Chrome or Edge web browser. No client download required.

The host can decide to switch off the video and make the meeting audio only at any moment. And the host can also share their desktop screen with others.

The new Messenger Room feature is expected to be available in the Messenger beta version on Windows and Mac in the coming days.

Note: Back in 2016, Facebook was testing a similar Rooms feature on Messenger. You can read about it here.

via: ALumia