Facebook Announces ‘Messenger Rooms’ to Compete with Zoom & House Party

As video calling becomes the norm for both socialising and working amid the Coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has announced a new product to jump on the trend. Messenger Rooms take cue from the recent surge of popularity of video calling apps such as Zoom and House Party to introduce a new AI-powered video call function that can host up to 50 people, with no time limit.

Much like Zoom, Messenger Room ‘hosts’ can share a link or invitation for people to join their video call, whether or not they have a Facebook account. For Facebook users, however, there are more ways to start or join a room - hosts can post invitations on their Timeline, on Groups or on Events pages.

Using artificial intelligence and facial recognition, Messenger Room calls can get a lot more fun too, as users can choose filters, ambient lighting and 360-degree virtual backgrounds to jazz up their conference calls. Like House Party, if your room is unlocked, any of your Messenger contacts can jump into your room and join your call. Alternatively, you can lock your room for privacy.

"We already have leading, if not the leading, video calling and live video services," Mark Zuckerberg said about the new launch. “I think we’re soon going to have the leading video rooms product for social use cases as well.”

Messenger Rooms will be rolling out across the world over the next few weeks.