Video calling is one of the most important parts of daily life nowadays. People are styling home during the lockdown and get in touch with friends and colleagues.
After seeing the dramatic increase of video calling through ZOOM, Facebook wanted to put their feet here as well. Facebook has released its version for group video calling called Facebook Messenger Rooms.
This just an extended version on Facebook Messenger video calling. But Facebook Messenger has limitations on the total number of people allowed to participate and all of them need to have a Facebook account.
But with the new Facebook Messenger Rooms, the limit of the people who can join the group video calling has been increased. This new tool allows 50 people to join the video call.
Those who don’t have a Facebook account can also join the conversion. One needs to receive a link to the Room you have created. At the time of the video call, you would have an option to generate a link. You can send this link to anyone and the person can join the video call just by clicking on the link.
The biggest advantage, there will be no time limit to the video calls made from Facebook Messenger rooms.
If you join a Room through the Facebook Messenger app, then you will get features like AR effects, immersive backgrounds, and mood lighting. The creator of a Room has the ability to choose who can see and join it. The creator can also remove or lock a person anytime during the call.
One can also create a room from the Facebook group. But the room would be opened to members of that group by default.
On the official release, Facebook also said about the security. The Messenger Rooms feature is not end-to-end encrypted. Because there are significant challenges to equipped such encryption for video calling with large groups of people.
However, the company will try to provide this feature in the future. The video calls are encrypted between participants and Facebook servers. Facebook has also confirmed that it does not listen to the calls on Rooms.
Earlier this week, WABetaInfo reported that the new beta versions of WhatsApp support up to 8 participants in a group video or voice call.
The new Messenger Rooms feature is rolling out in some countries this week. It will expand globally and reach to all Facebook users in the coming weeks.