What is Messenger Rooms: how to use it, limits, features
To compete with some of the best video call apps, Facebook has decided to go one step further with their integration between Messenger and WhatsApp to give you video calls with up to fifty participants. This new tool is called Messenger Rooms.
How do Messenger Rooms work?
Messenger Rooms can be used without a Facebook account: an invitation from the host with the meeting URL is enough to participate.
To compete with other apps such as HouseParty or Zoom, Facebook has expanded the number of possible participants to 50. This amount will allow you to have meetings with more employees than would fit in any conference room, or have large gatherings with friends and family.
Messenger Rooms will appear on both the Facebook and WhatsApp web pages. This will give you the possibility to make video calls from the desktop version of WhatsApp (now transformed into Rooms).
In addition, the new tool will have private and public rooms, depending on whether the host wants to make their meeting open to everyone or choose who can participate.
How are Messenger Rooms different from other apps?
Other improvements over other calling apps:
- Unlike Zoom, meetings in Rooms have no time limit: you can stay talking to your friends for hours and hours.
- The entrance to the meetings in Messenger Rooms will be direct, without going through a waiting room.
- As a measure to prevent trolls from entering meetings, people you have previously blocked on Facebook will not be able to enter the video calls you are hosting.